Full text of "The Elgin marbles from the Temple of Minerva at Athens : on sixty-one plates, selected from "Stuart's and Revett's Antiquities of Athens" : to which are added, The Report from the Select Committee to the House of Commons respecting the Earl of Elgin's collection of sculptured marbles, and an historical account of the temple"

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THE

ELGIN MARBLES

FROM

THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA

ATHENS:

ON SIXTY-ONE PLATES,

SELECTED FROM

“ STUARTS AND REVETT’S ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS.”

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,

Wiyt Report from tfjc Select Committer

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

RESPECTING

THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF SCULPTURED MARBLES,

AND

AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE TEMPLE.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. MOYES, GREVILLE STREET,

FOR J. TAYLOR, AT THE ARCHITECTURAL LIBRARY, 59, HIGH HOLBORN.

M.DCCC.XVI.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

The great celebrity of the Sculptured Marbles recently brought
into England by the Earl of Elgin, which formed the most interest-
ing department of his Museum, and have recently become national
property, induced the Publisher of this volume to gratify the curiosity
of the Public, by selecting from the second and fourth volumes of
Stuart and Revett’s Antiquities of Athens all the Plates which repre-
sent the remarkably fine Sculpture of the celebrated Parthenon,
generally supposed to be the work of Phidias, the most renowned of
the Sculptors of Antiquity, hut which were certainly executed under
his direction and superintendence. The great interest these speci-
mens of ancient art have excited for several years past in the breast
of every lover of the Fine Arts, has been shown by the anxiety of
the Public to inspect the Museum, and by the very strong desire
universally expressed, that it should become national property, and
that it may be constantly open for public inspection, as well for the
gratification of the learned Antiquary as for the improvement of
Students in every branch of the Fine Arts. The representations,
therefore, of such chaste and spirited Sculpture must he particularly
interesting to all persons of taste, who have not had the satisfaction
of seeing the Originals, hut also to those, who, having seeh them, are
better enabled to appreciate their merits.

A short history of the Parthenon, selected from Stuart s Work,
and the Parliamentary Report respecting the Marbles, are given, that
the Public may be amply informed of the high estimation in which
they are held by the best judges, both amateurs and professors : and

ADVERTISEMENT.

we ought not to pass unnoticed the great expense and exertion
necessary in bringing these bulky and ponderous Marbles to Eng-
land ; which certainly could not have been accomplished but for the
train of fortunate and splendid events, which for so many years
attended the arms of this country in certain quarters of the Turkish
empire. The highest praise and sincerest thanks are due from an
enlightened Public to Lord Elgin, for stepping forward at the
critical moment, and rescuing these precious remains of ancient art
from the destroying hand of time, and from the more destroying hand
of an uncivilized people.

It is not too much to say, that however valuable and interesting
the other parts of this noble Museum may be, yet the Sculptures of
the Temple of Minerva form the principal and most important feature,
as well lor intrinsic merit as for number : and if this Volume should
meet with suitable encouragement, it may induce the Publisher to
proceed with the remaining part of the Collection.

The Plates of the Theseus or Hercules, the Ilyssus or River u
God, and the Horse’s Head, have been engraved for this Volume,
from Drawings kindly furnished by F. L. Chantrey, Esq. The
superior excellence of these Statues made it absolutely necessary
that their merits should be particularly exhibited. The grace,
elegance, and truth ot outline, with the high finishing of these
Sculptures, have caused them to be classed superior to the finest
examples remaining of ancient art, not excepting the Apollo Bel-
videre, or the Torso. These Etchings, it is hoped, will afford
some suitable ideas of the superior form and grace of the Originals ;
although to represent their exquisite finishing is perhaps beyond
the power of the graver.

It may be proper here to observe, that some of the Drawings,
from which these Plates were etched, were made by Stuart, and
by Parrs, fifty years ago, under circumstances far different

some

ADVERTISEMENT.

from those under which the original Marbles are now exhibited to
public and close inspection. Access into the Acropolis could not then
be obtained without much difficulty and circumspection; and the
buildings having been appropriated entirely, or in part, to military
or religious purposes, a close investigation of them was rendered a
business of some risk, and great delicacy ; the ever jealous eye of the
Turks being always on the watch to guard against surprise, or the
purloining of any hidden treasure, the only motives they could
imagine sufficiently powerful to bring persons from a distant country,
and at a large expense. It was, therefore, oftentimes not without con-
siderable risk that proper access could be had for the purpose of
making the Drawings : and much praise is due to the perseverance of
the draftsmen, which has produced them with so much accuracy.
We must not, therefore, be surprised if a few trivial inaccuracies may
he discovered by a closer and more deliberate investigation.

. M'M . ■

report

FROM THE

SELECT COMMITTEE

THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION

SCULPTURED MARBLES,

&c.

CONTENTS.

(

Report* ••• ..........

Minutes of Evidence •

The Earl of Elgin

The Right Honourable Charles Long

William Hamilton, Esq.

Joseph Nollekens, Esq. R. A

John Flaxman; Esq. R. A.

Richard Westmacott, Esq. R. A.

Francis Chantery, Esq.

Charles Rossi, Esq. R. A.. • • •

Sir Thomas Lawrence, Knt. R. A.

Richard Payne Knight, Esq..

William Wilkins, Esq.

Taylor Combe, Esq. .'

The Earl of Aberdeen

John Bacon Sawrey Morritt, Esq. -

John Nicholas Fazakenley, Esq.

Alexander Day, Esq.

Rev. Dr. Philip Hunt, LL. D.

Questions sent to Benjamin West, Esq., with the Answers.

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... 41—45
... 45 — 46
. 46 — 50
. .. 50 — 52
••• 52 — 53

. 53 — 54

• •• 55 — 58
... 58 — 60

APPENDIX.

No. 2. Letter from Lord Elgin to the Right Honourable N. Vansittart, accompanying his Petition to the House

of Commons .. ^ _

Page 6l

No. 3 — Memorandum, as to Lord Elgin’s exclusive right of Property in the Collection of Marbles ib.

No. 4 Memorandum, as to the delay in transferring Lord Elgin's Collection to the Public 62

No. 5. Copy of a Letter addressed by Lord Elgin to the Right Honourable Charles Long, in 1811 ; with a Postscript

added February 1816, enumerating Expenses, &c g3 gg

No. 6 — Letter from Lord Elgin to Henry Bankes, Esq. enumerating Expenses 66

No. 7—Copy of a Letter from Charles Townley, Esq. to J. Harrison, Esq. on the Subject of Lord Elgin's
Marbles

No. 8.— Translation of a Letter from the Cavalier Canova to the Earl of Elgin g8

No. s— Extract of a Despatch from his Excellency thd Earl of Elgin to Lord Hawkesbury, dated Constantinople . .

No. 10- Translation of a Fermaun to the Vaivode, or Governor of Athens, in 1801

Catalogue of the Elgin Marbles, Vases, Casts, and Drawings, prepared from the MS. of M. Visconti 70-

ib.

74,

EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

ing foreigners into their country, and of having money spent among them. The Turks
showed a total indifference and apathy as to the preservation of these remains, except
when in a fit of wanton destruction they sometimes carried their disregard so far as to
do mischief by firing at them. The numerous travellers and admirers of the Arts
committed greater waste, from a very different motive; for many of those who visited
the Acropolis tempted the soldiers, and other people about the fortress, to bring them
down heads, legs, or arms, or whatever other pieces they could carry off.

A translation of the fermaun itself has since been forwarded by Dr. Hunt , which is
printed in the Appendix.

II.

Upon the Second Division, it must be premised, that antecedently to Lord Elgin s
departure for Constantinople, he communicated his intentions of bringing home casts
and drawings from Athens, for the benefit and advancement of the Fine Arts in this
country, to Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, and Mr. Dundas, suggesting to them the pro-
priety of considering it as a national object, fit to be undertaken, and carried into
effect at the public expense; but that this recommendation was in no degree en-
couraged, either at that time or afterwards.

It is evident, from a letter of Lord Elgin to the Secretary of State, 13 January
3803, that he considered himself as having no sort of claim for his disbursements in
the prosecution of these pursuits, though he stated, in the same despatch, the heavy
expenses in which they had involved him, so as to make it extremely inconvenient for
him to forego any of the usual allowances to which Ambassadors at other courts were
entitled. It cannot, therefore, be doubted, that he looked upon himself in this respect
as acting in a character entirely distinct from his official situation. But whether the
Government from whom he obtained permission did, or could so consider him, is a
question which can be solved only by conjecture and reasoning, in the absence and
deficiency of all positive testimony. The Turkish ministers of that day are, in fact,
the only persons in the world capable (if they are still alive) of deciding the doubt ;
and it is probable that even they, if it were possible to consult them, might be unable
to form any very distinct discrimination as to the character in consideration of which
they acceded to Lord Elgin s request. The occasion made them, beyond all prece-
dent, propitious to whatever was desired in behalf of the English nation : they readily,
therefore, complied with all that was asked by Lord Elgin. He was an Englishman
of high rank; he was also Ambassador from our Court: they granted the same per-*
mission to no other individual : but then, as Lord Elgin observes, no other individual
applied for it to the same extent, nor had indeed the same unlimited means for carrying
such an undertaking into execution. The expression of one of the most intelligent and
distinguished of the British travellers, who visited Athens about the same period-
appears to your Committee to convey as correct a judgment as can be formed upon
this question, which is incapable of being satisfactorily separated, and must be taken
in the aggregate.

The Earl of Aberdeen, in answer to an inquiry, whether the authority and influence
of a public situation was in his opinion necessary for accomplishing the removal of

REPORT PROM SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE

The other five artists were withdrawn from Athens in January 1803, but Lusieri
has continued there ever since, excepting during the short period of our hostilities
with the Ottoman Porte.

During the year 1800, Egypt was in the power of the French : and that sort of
contempt and dislike which has always characterized the Turkish government and
people in their behaviour towards every denomination of Christians, prevailed in
full force.

The success of the British arms in Egypt, and the expected restitution of that
province to the Porte, wrought a wonderful and instantaneous change in the dispo-
sition of all ranks and descriptions of people towards our Nation. Universal
benevolence and good-will appeared to take place of suspicion and aversion. Nothing
was refused which was asked ; and Lord Elgin, availing himself of this favourable and
unexpected alteration, obtained, in the summer of 1801, access to the Acropolis for
general purposes, with permission to draw, model, and remove; to which was added,
a special license to excavate in a particular place. Lord Elgin mentions in his
evidence, that he was obliged to send from Athens to Constantinople for leave to
remove a house : at the same time remarking, that, in point of fact, all permissions
issuing from the Porte to any distant provinces, are little better than authorities to
make the best bargain that can be made with the local magistracies. The applications
upon this subject passed in verbal conversations ; but the warrants or fermauns were
granted in writing, addressed to the chief authorities resident at Athens, to whom they
were delivered, and in whose hands they remained : so that your Committee had no
opportunity of learning from Lord Elgin himself their exact tenor, or of ascertaining
in what terms they noticed, or allowed the displacing, or carrying away of these
Marbles. But Dr. Hunt, who accompanied Lord Elgin as chaplain to the embassy,
has preserved, and has now in his possession, a translation of the second fermaun,
Which extended the powers of the first ; but as he had it not with him in London, to
produce before your Committee, he stated the substance, according to his recollection,
which was, “ That, in order to show their particular respect to the Ambassador of
“ Great Britain, the august Ally of the Porte, with whom they were now and had Ion<?
“ been in the strictest alliance, they gave to his Excellency and to his Secretary”
“ and the Artists employed by him, the most extensive permission to view, draw, and
model, the ancient Temples of the Idols, and the Sculptures upon them, and to
make excavations, and to take away any stones that might appear interesting to
“them.” He stated further, that no remonstrance was at anytime made, nor any
displeasure shown, by the Turkish government, either at Constantinople or at Athens,
against the extensive interpretation which was put upon this fermaun ; and although
the work of taking down and removing was going on for months, and even years, and
was conducted m the most public manner, numbers of native labourers, to the amount
of some hundreds, being frequently employed, not the least obstruction was ever
interposed, nor the smallest uneasiness shown, after the granting of this second
fermaun Among the Greek population and inhabitants of Athens it occasioned no
sort of dissatisfaction; but, as Mr. Hamilton, an eye-witness, expresses it, so far from
exciting any unpleasant sensation, the people seemed to feel it as the means of bring-

Hr •>

tit

EARL OF ELGIN'S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

close imitation of nature is combined with grandeur of Style, while the exact details
of the former in no degree detract from the etfect and predominance of the latter.

The two finest single figures of this Collection differ materially in this respect from
the Apollo Belvidere, which may be selected as the highest and most sublime repre-
sentation of ideal form, and beauty, which Sculpture has ever embodied, and turned
into shape.

The evidence upon this part of the inquiry will be read with satisfaction and inte-
rest, both where it is immediately connected with these Marbles, and where it branches
out into extraneous observations, but all of them relating to the study of the Antique.
A reference is made by one of the witnesses to a sculptor, eminent throughout Europe
for his works, who lately left this Metropolis highly gratified by the view of these trea-
sures of that branch of Art, which he has cultivated with so much success. His own
letter to the Earl of Elgin upon this subject is inserted in the Appendix.

In the judgment of Mr. Payne Knight, whose valuation will be referred to m a
subsequent page, the first class is not assigned to the two principal statues of this Col-
lection ; but he rates the Metopes in the first class of works in High Relief, and knows
of nothing so fine in that kind. He places also the Frize in the first class of Low
Relief; and considering a general Museum of Art to be very desirable, he looks upon
such an addition to our National Collection as likely to contribute to the improvement
of the Arts, and to become a very valuable acquisition ; for the importation of which
Lord Elgin is entitled to the gratitude of his Country.

IV.

The directions of the House in the order of reference imposes upon your Committee
the task of forming and submitting an opinion upon the Fourth Head, which other-
wise the scantiness of materials for fixing a pecuniary Value, and the unwillingness, or
inability in those who are practically most conversant in Statuary to afford any lights
upon this part of the subject, would have rather induced them to decline.

The produce of this Collection, if it should be brought to sale in separate lots, in
the present depreciated state of almost every article, and more particularly of such as
are of precarious and fanciful value, would probably be much inferior to what may be
denominated its intrinsic value.

The mutilated state of all the larger Figures, the want either of heads or features,
of limbs or surface, in most of the Metopes, and in a great proportion of the Compart-
ments even of the larger Frize, render this Collection, if divided, but little adapted to
serve for the decoration of private houses. It should therefore be considered as form-
ing a Whole, and should unquestionably be kept entire as a School of Art, and a
Study for the formation of Artists. The competitors in the market, if it should be
offered for sale without separation, could not be numerous. Some of the Sovereigns
of Europe, added to such of the great Galleries or national Institutions in various parts
of Lhe Continent as may possess funds at the disposal of their directors, sufficient tor
such a purpose, would in all probability be the only purchasers.

It is not, however, reasonable, nor becoming the liberality of Parliament, to withhold,
upon this account, whatever, under all the circumstances, may be deemed a just and

'» -
t

£ REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE

these Marbles, answered, that he did not think a private individual could have accom-
plished the removal of the remains which Lord Elgin obtained : and Doctor Hunt,
who had better opportunities of information upon this point than any other person
who has been examined, gave it as his decided opinion, that “ a British subject not m
the situation of Ambassador, could not have been able to obtain from the Turkish
Government a fermaun of such extensive powers.”

It may not be unworthy of remark, that the only other piece of Sculpture which
was ever removed from its place for the purpose of export, was taken by Mr. Choiseul
Gouffier, when he was Ambassador from France to the Porte ; but whether he did it
by express permission, or in some less ostensible way, no means of ascertaining are
within the reach of your Committee. It was undoubtedly at various times an object
with the French Government to obtain possession of some of these valuable remains;
and it is probable, according to the testimony of Lord Aberdeen and others, that at no
great distance of time they might have been removed by that government from their
original site, if they had not been taken away, and secured for this country, by
Lord Elgin.

III.

The Third Part is involved in much less intricacy : and although in all matters
of Taste there is room for great variety and latitude of opinion, there will be found
upon this branch of the subject much more uniformity and agreement than could have
been expected. The testimony of several of the most eminent Artists in this kingdom,
who have been examined, rates these Marbles in the very first class of ancient art,
some placing them a little above, and others but very little below, the Apollo Belvidere,
the Laocoon, and the Torso of the Belvidere. They speak of them with admiration
and enthusiasm ; and notwithstanding the manifold injuries of time and weather, and
those mutilations which they have sustained from the fortuitous, or designed injuries of
neglect, or mischief, they consider them as among the finest models, and the most
exquisite monuments of antiquity. The general current of this portion of the evidence
makes no doubt of referring the date of these works to the original building of the
Parthenon, and to the designs of Phidias, the dawn of every thing which adorned and
ennobled Greece. With this estimation of the excellence of these works, it is natural
to conclude that they are recommended by the same authorities as highly fit, and
admirably adapted to form a school for study, to improve our national taste for the
Fine Arts, and to diffuse a more perfect knowledge of them throughout this kingdom.

Much indeed may be reasonably hoped and expected, from the general observa-
tion, and admiration of such distinguished examples. The end of the fifteenth and
beginning of the sixteenth centuries, enlightened by the discovery of several of the
noblest remains of antiquity, produced in Italy an abundant harvest of the most
eminent men, who made gigantic advances in the path of Art, as Painters, Sculptors,
and Architects. Caught by the novelty, attracted by the beauty, and enamoured of
the perfection of those newly disclosed treasures, they imbibed the genuine spirit of
ancient excellence, and transfused it into their own compositions.

It is surprising to observe in the best of these Marbles in how great a degree the

EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, tec.

Mr. Vaxine Knight amounting; to ,£.25,000; and that of Mr. Hamilton to

£.60,800.

The only other sum mentioned as a money price, is in the evidence of the Earl of
Aberdeen , who named £.35,000, as a sort of conjectural estimate of the whole,
without entering into particulars.

In addition to the instances of prices quoted in Mr. Payne Knight’s evidence, the
sums paid for other celebrated Marbles deserve to be brought under the notice of the
House.

The Townley Collection, which was purchased for the British Museum in June 1805,
for £.20,000, is frequently referred to in the examinations of the witnesses, with some
variety of opinion as to its intrinsic value: but it is to be observed of all the principal
Sculptures in that .Collection, that they were in excellent condition, with the surface
perfect; and where injured, they were generally well restored, and perfectly adapted
for the decoration, and almost for the ornamental furniture of a private house, as they
were indeed disposed by Mr. Townley in his lifetime.

In what proportion the state of mutilation in which the Elgin Marbles are left,
and above all the corrosion of much of the surface by weather, reduce their value, it is
difficult precisely to ascertain : but it may unquestionably be affirmed, in the words of
one of the Sculptors examined, (who rates these Works in the highest class of Art,)
that “ the Townleyan Marbles being entire, are, in a commercial point of view, the
most valuable of the two : but that the Elgin Marbles, as possessing that matter which
Artists most require, claim a higher consideration.”

The fEgina Marbles, which are also referred to, and were well known to one of the
Members of Your Committee, who was. in treaty to purchase them for the British
Museum, sold for £.6,000, to the Prince Royal of Bavaria, which was less than the
British Government had directed to be offered, after a prior negotiation for obtaining
them had failed: their real value, however, was supposed not to exceed £.4,000 ; at
which Lusieri estimated them. They are described as valuable in point of remote
antiquity, and curious in that respect, but of no distinguished merit as specimens of
Sculpture, their style being what is usually called Etruscan, and older than the age of
Phidias.

The Marbles at Phigalia, in Arcadia, have lately been purchased for the Museum
at the expense of £15,000, increased by a very unfavourable exchange to £19,000, a
sum which your Committee, after inspecting them, ventured to consider as more than
equal to their value.

It is true that an English gentleman, concerned in discovering them, was ready to
give the same sum ; and therefore no sort of censure can attach on those who pur-
chased them abroad, for our national Gallery, without any possible opportunity of
viewing and examining the sculpture, but knowing them only from the sketches which
were sent over, and the place where they were dug up, to be undoubted and authen-
tic remains of Greek artists of the best time.

When the first offer was made by the Earl of Elgin to Mr. Percival, of putting the
Public in possession of this Collection, Mr. Long, a member of your Committee, was
authorized by Mr. Percival to acquaint Lord Elgin, that he was willing to propose to

REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE

adequate price ; and more particularly in a case where Parliament is left to fix its own
valuation, and no specific sum is demanded, or even suggested, by the Party who offers
the Collection to the Public.

It is obvious that the money expended in the acquisition of any commodity is not
necessarily the measure of its real value. The sum laid out in gaining possession of
two articles of the same intrinsic worth, may, and often does, vary considerably. In
making two excavations, for instance, of equal magnitude and labour, a broken Bust
or some few Fragments may be discovered in the one, and a perfect Statue in the
other. The first cost of the broken Bust and of the entire Statue would in that case
be the same; but it cannot be said that the value is therefore equal. In the same
manner, by the loss or detention of a Ship, a great charge may have been incurred,
and the original outgoing excessively enhanced ; but the value to the buyer will in no
degree be affected by these extraneous accidents. Supposing, again, Artists to have
been engaged at considerable salaries during a large period in which they could do
little or nothing, the first cost would be burdensome in this case also to the employer ;
but those who bought would look only at the value of the article in the market where
it might be exposed to sale, without caring, or inquiring how, or at what expense it
was brought thither.

Supposing, on the other hand, that the thirteen other Metopes had been bought at
the Custom House sale at the same price which that of Mr. Choiseul Gouffier fetched,
it could never be said, that the value of them was no more than twenty-four or twenty-
five pounds a piece.

It is perfectly just and reasonable that the seller should endeavour fully to reim-
burse himself for all expenses, and to acquire a profit also ; but it will be impossible
for him to do so, whenever the disbursements have exceeded the fair money price of
that which he has to dispose of.

Your Committee refer to Lord Elgin’s evidence for the large and heavy charges
which have attended the formation of this Collection, and the placing of it in its pre-
sent situation ; which amount, from 1799 to January 1803, to £62,440, including
£23,240 for the interest of money ; and according to a supplemental account, corn
turned from 1803 to 1816, to no less a sum than £74,000, including the same sum for
interest.

All the papers which are in his possession upon this subject, including a journal of
above 90 pages, of the daily expenses of his principal artist Lusieri, (from 1803 to the
close of 1814,) who still remains in his employment at Athens, together with the
account current of Messrs. Hayes of Malta, (from April 1807 to May 1811,) have
been freely submitted to your Committee; and there can be no doubt, from the
inspection of those accounts, confirmed nlso by other testimony, that the disburse-
ments were very considerable ; but supposing them to reach the full sum at which
they are calculated, your Committee do not hesitate to express their opinion, that they
aftord no just criterion of the Value of the Collection, and therefore must not be taken
4S a just basis for estimating it.

Two Valuations and only two in detail, have been laid before your Committee
b * a'e Pri"ted ; dlfferlcS most wide]J particulars, and in the total; that of

EARL OF ELGIN'S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, fcc.

to the same period, though the execution is rated as inferior to that of the Elgin
Marbles. In the fabulous stories which are represented upon both, there is a very-
striking similarity ; and it may be remarked in passing, that the subjects of the
Metopes, and of the smaller Prize, which is sculptured with the battle of the Amazons,
correspond with two out of the four subjects mentioned by Pliny, as adorning
the shield and dress of the Minerva ; so that there was a general uniformity ot design
in the stories which were selected for the internal and external decoration of the
Parthenon. The taste of the same artist, Ictinus, probably led him to repeat the
same ideas, which abound in graceful forms, and variety of composition, when he was
employed upon the temple of another divinity, at a distance from Athens.

The statue of Minerva within the Temple, was the work of Phidias himself ; and,
with the exception of the Jupiter which he made at FJis, the most celebrated of his
productions. It was composed of ivory and gold ; with regard to which, some very
curious anecdotes relating to the political history of that time, are to be found in the
same writers ; the earliest of which, from a passage in a cotemporary poet, Aristo-
phanes, proves that the value of these materials involved both Pericles and the
director of his works in great trouble, and jeopardy ; upon which account the latter is
said to have withdrawn to Elis, and to have ended his days there, leaving it doubtful
whether his death was natural, or in consequence of a judicial sentence : but Plutarch
places his death at Athens, and in prison, either by disease, or by poison.

It has been doubted whether Phidias himself ever wrought in Marble : but, although,
when he did not use ivory, his chief material was unquestionably bronze ; there are
authorities sufficient to establish, beyond all controversy, that he sometimes applied
his hand to Marble. Pliny, for instance, asserts that he did so, and mentions a Venus
ascribed to him, existing in his own time in the collection (or in the portico) of
Octavia. Phidias is called by Aristotle a skilful worker in Stone; and Pausanias
enumerates a Celestial Venus of Parian Marble, undoubtedly of his hand ; and the
Rhamnusian Nemesis, also of the same material. Some of his statues in bronze, were
brought to Rome by Paulus iEmilius, and by Catullus.

His great reputation, however, was founded upon his representations of the Gods,
in which he was supposed more excellent than in human forms, and especially upon
his works in ivory, in which he stood unrivalled *.

Elidas the Argive is mentioned as the master of Phidias ; which honour is also
shared by Hippias. His two most celebrated scholars were Alcamenes an Athenian of
noble birth, and Agoracritus of Paros ; the latter of whom was his favourite; and it
was reported, that out of affection to him, Phidias put his scholar’s name upon several
of his own works : among which the statue called Rhamnusian Nemesis is particular-
ized by Pliny, and Suidas.

In another passage of Pliny, Alcamenes is classed with Critias, Nestocles, and
Ilegias, who are called the rivals of Phidias, The name of Colotes is preserved as
another of his scholars.

The other great Sculptors who were living at the same time with Phidias, and
flourished very soon after him, were Agelades, Callon, Polycletus, Phragmon, Gorgias,
Lacon, Myron, Pythagoras, Scopas, and Perelius.

The passage in which Pausanias mentions the Sculptures on the pediments 15
* Quintilian, xii. c. IQ.

8 REPORT TROM SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE

Parliament to- purchase it for £30,000, provided Lord Elgin should make out, to the
satisfaction of a Committee of the House of Commons, that he had expended so much
in acquiring, and transporting it.

Lord Elgin declined this proposal, for the reasons stated by him in his evidence :
and until the month of June 1815, no further step was taken on either side; but at
that time a petition was presented, on the part of Lord Elgin, to the House, which,
owing to the late period of the Session, was not proceeded upon. Eighty additional
cases have been received since 1811, the contents of which, enumerated in Mr. Hamil-
ton's evidence, now form a part of the Collection. Ihe Medals also, of which the
value is more easily defined, were not included in the proposal made to Mr. Percival.

Against these augmentations must be set the rise in the value of money, which is
unquestionably not inconsiderable, between the present time and the year 1811; a
cause or consequence of which is the depreciation of every commodity, either of ne-
cessity, or fancy, which is brought to sale.

Your Committee, therefore, do not think that they should be justified, in behalf of
the Public, if they were to recommend to the House any extension of Mr. Percival’s
offer to a greater amount than £5,000; and, under all the circumstances that they
have endeavoured to bring under the view of the House, they judge Thirty-five Thou-
sand Pounds to be a reasonable and sufficient price for this Collection.

Your Committee observing, that by the Act 45 Geo. III. c. 127, for vesting the
Townleyan Collection in the Trustees of the British Museum, % 4, the proprietor of that
Collection, Mr. Tomnley Standish, was added to the Trustees of the British Museum,
considered the Earl of Elgin (and his heirs being Earls of Elgin), as equally entitled to
the same distinction, and recommend that a clause should be inserted to that effect,
if it should be necessary that an Act should pass for transferring his Collection to the
Public.

It may not be deemed foreign to this subject, if your Committee venture to
extend their observations somewhat beyond the strict limit of their immediate
inquiry, and lay before the House what occurs to them as not unimportant with
regard to the age and authenticity of these Sculptures. The great works with which
Pericles adorned and strengthened Athens, were all carried on under the direction and
superin tendance of Phidias : for this, there is the authority of various ancient
writers, and particularly of Plutarch ; but he distinctly asserts in the same passage*
that Callicrates and Ictinus executed the work of the Parthenon ; which is confirmed
also by Pausanias, so far as relates to Ictinus, who likewise ornamented or con-
structed the temple of Apollo at Phigalia* ; from whence, by a singular coincidence,
the Sculptures in high relief lately purchased for the British Museum, and frequently
referred to in the evidence, were transported.

The style of this work, in the opinion of the Artists, indicates that it belongs

* The penultimate syllable should be pronounced long : Phigalia closes two hexameter verses ; one of
which IS quoted by Pausanius, and the. other by Stephanus Byzatuiiius, from, fihianus, a Poet of Crete,

EARL OF ELGIN'S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

was obliged to draw every thing from below, without a scaffold.” — (Voyage par Jacob
Spon ; Lyons, 1678 ; 2 tom. p. 144.)

Wheler, who travelled with Spon, and published his work at London (four years
later) in 1682, says : “ But my companion made me observe the next two figures
sitting in the corner to be of the Emperor Hadrian and his Empress Sabina, whom I
easily knew to be so, by the many medals and statues I have seen of them.” And
again : “ But the Emperor Hadrian most probably repaired it, and adorned it with
those figures at each front : for the whiteness of the Marble, and his own statue

joined with them, apparently show them to be of a later age than the first, and done by
that Emperor’s command. Within the portico on high, and on the outside of the
cella of the Temple itself, is another border of basso relievo round about it, or at least
on the North and South sides, which, without doubt, is as ancient as the Temple, and of
admirable work, but not so high a relievo as the other. Thereon are represented sa-
crifices, processions, and other ceremonies of the heathens' worship. Most of them were
designed by the M. de Nointel, who employed a painter to do it two months together,
and showed them to us when we waited on him at Constantinople."

Another French author, who published three years earlier than Spon', a work
called “ Athenes Ancienne & Nouvelle, par le S’ de la Guilletiere, ii Paris,” 1675, —
says, “ Pericles employed upon the Parthenon the celebrated architects Callicrates
and Ictinus. The last, who had more reputation than the former, wrote a description
of it in a book*, which he composed on purpose, and which has been lost; and we
should probably not now have the opportunity of admiring the building itself, if the
Emperor Hadrian had not preserved it to us, by the repairs which he caused to be done.
It is to his care that we owe the few remains of antiquity which are still entire at Athens.

In the Antiquities of Athens by Stuart, vol. ii. p. 4, it is said, “ Pausanias gives
but a transient account of this Temple, nor does he say whether Hadrian repaired it,
though his statue, and that of his Empress Sabina in the western pediment, have oc-
casioned a doubt whether the sculptures, in both, were not put up by him. Wheler
and Spon were of this opinion, and say they were whiter than the rest of the building.
The statue of Antinous, now remaining at Rome, may be thought a proof that there
were artists in his time capable of executing them ; but this whiteness is no proof that
they were more modern than the Temple, for they might be made of a whiter marble;
and the heads of Hadrian and Sabina might be put on two of the ancient figures,
which was no uncommon practice among the Romans ; and if we may give credit to
Plutarch, the buildings of Pericles were not in the least impaired by age in his time.;
therefore, this Temple could not want any material repairs in the reign of Hadrian.”
With regard to the works of Hadrian at Athens, Spartian says, “ that he did much
for the Athenians f;” and a little after, on his second visit to Athens, “ going to the
East he made his journey through Athens, and dedicated the works which he had
begun there: and particularly a temple to Olympian Jupiter, and an altar to himself.”
The account given by Dion Cassius, is nearly to the same effect; adding, that he
placed his own statue within the temple of Olympian Jupiter, which he erected J.

He called some other cities after his own name, and directed a part' of Athens to be
styled Iladrianopolis § : but no mention is made by any ancient author, of his touch-

* Ictinus and Carpion were jointly concerned in this work, for which we have the authority of Vitruvius,
lib. 7. prsefat. + Folio edit. 1620, p. 6. $ b. 69. c. 1(3. § Spartian, p. 10,

REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE, fee,

ing, or repairing the Parthenon. Pausanias, who wrote in his reign, says, that “ the
temples which Hadrian either erected from the foundation, or adorned with dedicate
gifts and decorations, or whatever donations he made to the cities of the Greeks, an
of the Barbarians also, who made application to him, were all recorded at Athens in the
temple common to all the gods *

It is not unlikely, that a confused recollection of the statue which Hadrian actua y
placed at Athens, may have led one of the earliest travellers into a mistake, which lias
been repeated and countenanced by subsequent writers: but Mr. Fauvel, who will be
quoted presently, speaks as from his own examination and observation, when he men-
tions the two statues in question ; which, it is to be observed, still remain (without theii
heads) upon the pediment of the entrance, and have not been removed by Lord Elgin.

An exact copy of these drawings, by the Marquis de Nointel’s painter, is given in
Stuart's Antiquities of Athens, vol. iv. chap. 4. plates 1, 2, 3, and 4, which are ren-
dered more valuable on account of the destruction of a considerable part of the
Temple, in the Turkish war, by the falling of a Venetian bomb, within a short time
after the year in which they were made ; which, however, must have been prior to the
date of 1683, which has been affixed to them.

Some notes of Mr. Fauvel, a painter and antiquary, who moulded and took casts
from the greatest part of the Sculptures, and remained fifteen years at Athens, are
given with the engravings of these drawings; in which it is said, with regard to these
pediments, chap. iv. page 21, “ These figures had bronze ornaments, at least if one
may judge from the head of Sabina A, plate 5, which having fallen oft, being much
mutilated, has been brought to Mr. Fauvel, holes may still be observed, apparently
to receive little gudgeons of bronze, by which the crown was fastened. The head B
of the Emperor Hadrian still remains. This group has probably been supplied afterwards
in honour of this Emperor : it is of a different workmanship from the other figures.

Your Committee cannot dismiss this interesting subject, without submitting to the
attentive reflection of the House, how highly the cultivation of the Fine Arts has
contributed to the reputation, character, and dignity of every Government by which
they have been encouraged, and how intimately they are connected with the ad-
vancement of every thing valuable in science, literature, and philosophy. In contem-
plating the importance and splendour to which so small a republic as Athens rose, by
the genius and energy of her citizens exerted in the path of such studies, it is impos-
sible to overlook how transient the memory and fame of extended empires and of
mighty conquerors are, in comparison of those who have rendered inconsiderable
states eminent, and immortalized their own names by these pursuits. But if it be true,
as we learn from history and experience, that free governments afford a soil most
suitable to the production of native talent, to the maturing of the powers of the human
mind, and to the growth of every species of excellence, by opening to merit the pro-
spect of reward and distinction, no country can be better adapted than our own to af-
ford an honourable asylum to these monuments of the school of Phidias, and of the
administration of Eeviclts ; where, secure from further injury and degradation, they
may receive that admiration and homage to which they are entitled, and serve in re-
turn as models and examples to those, who by knowing how to revere and appreciate
them, may learn first to imitate, and ultimately to rival them.

March 25, 1816.

* Paus. Att. p. 5. Ed. Xyl.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE

TAKEN BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE,

RESPECTING

THE EARL OF ELGIN’S MARBLES.

N. B. — The Theseus and Hercules are used in the Evidence with reference to the same Statue,
which was at first called Theseus ; and the appellation of Ilissus, or The River God,
is also given indifferently to another Statue , which was sometimes called Neptune.

Jovis, 29° die Februarii.
HENRY BANICES, Esq. in the Chair.

The Earl of Elgin, called in, and Examined.

Your Lordship will be pleased to state the circumstances under which you became possessed of
this Collection, and the authority which you received for taking the Marbles from Athens?— The -
Wea was suggested to me in the year 1799, at the period of my nomination to the Embassy at
Constantinople, by Mr. Harrison, an architect, who was working for me in Scotland, and who had
passed the greater part of his life in Rome ; and his observation was, that though the Public was in
possession of every thing to give them a general knowledge of the remains of Athens, yet they had
nothing to convey to Artists, particularly to Students, that which the actual representation by cast
would more effectually give them. Upon that suggestion, I communicated very fully with my
acquaintances in London. I mentioned it to Lord Grenville, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Dundas, upon the
idea that it was of such national importance as that the Government might be induced to take it up,
hot only to obtain the object, but also to obtain it by the means of the most able artists at that time in
England. The answer of Government, which was entirely negative, was, that the Government would
not have been justified in undertaking any expense of an indefinite nature, particularly under the little
probability that then existed of the success of the undertaking. Upon that understanding, I applied
to such artists here as were recommended to me as likely to answer the purpose, in particulai to
Mr. Turner, to go upon my own account. Mr. Turner s objection to my plan was, that as the object
was of a general nature, and that the condition I insisted upon was, that the whole results of all the
artists should be collected together and left with me ; he objected, because he wished to retain a certain
portion of his own labour for his own use ; he moreover asked between seven and eight hundred pounds
of salary, independently of his expenses being paid, which of course was out of my reach altogether,
therefore nothing was done here preparatory to the undertaking at all. M hen I went to Sicily, X met
Sir William Hamilton, to whom I explained my views : he encouraged my idea, and applied to the
'King of Naples for permission for me to engage his painter, Lusieri, who was at that time employed
in picturesque views of Sicily for the Sicilian government ; who went with Mr. Hamilton to Rome,

The

Earl of Elgin.

24, MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

The and, upon the plan arranged with Sir William Hamilton, engaged the five other artists, who

Earl Of Elgin. accompanied him ultimately to Turkey : those five persons were, two architects, two modellers,

and one figure painter. Lusieri was a general painter. They reached Constantinople about the
middle of May 1800, at the time when the French were in full possession of Egypt, and of course
no attempts could be made with any prospect of general success. I sent them to Athens, however,
as soon as an opportunity offered : for several months they had no access to the Acropolis, except for
the purpose of drawing, and that at an expense of five guiueas a day : that lasted from August 1 800
till the month of April 1801.

That limited access lasted about nine months? — Yes.

The fee of five guineas was one usually demanded from strangers ? — There were so few strangers
there, I do not know ; but in the instances which came to my knowledge, it was so. During that period,
my artists were employed in the buildings in the low town of Athens. In proportion with the change
of affairs in our relations towards Turkey, the facilities of access were increased to me, and to all
English travellers : and about the middle of the summer of 1801, all difficulties were removed ; we
then had access for general purposes. The same facilities continued till my departure from Turkey in
January 1803, at which period I withdrew five out of the six artists ; and having sent home every
thing that was in the collection, till the year 1812 Lusieri remained, with such instructions, and such
means, and such powers, as enabled him to carry on the same operation to the extent that then
remained to make it, as I concluded, more perfect : but from that period of 1 803 till the present day,
during my imprisonment in France, and during the remaining years, he has acted without any
interruption, in the enjoyment of the same facilities, with a renewal of the same authorities : he
has incurred the same expenses, and done the same as before.

Where is he now ? i — Remaining there still : he was not there during the war, but he has obtained
a renewal of the same authorities since.

Your Lordship has stated, that when the change took place in the political relations between this
country and Turkey, a facility of access was continued to you, and all your artists? — Yes.

And in 1801 all difficulties were removed which applied to the erecting scaffolding, and making
excavations ; was the same permission to erect scaffolding and make excavations given to other persons
at Athens at that time ? — I do not know of any such instance : other persons made use of the same
scaffolding of course. I do not know that any specific permission of this kind was applied for : I
believe the permission granted to me was the same in substance and in purport as to any other person,
with the difference of the extent of means, and an unlimited use of money. There was nobody there,
I believe, who was doing any thing but draw.

Did the permission specifically refer to removing statues, or was that left to discretion ? — No ; it
was executed by the means of those general permissions granted : in point of fact, permission issuing
from the Porte for any of the distant provinces, is little better than an authority to make the best
bargain you can with the local authorities. The permission was to draw, model, and remove ; there
was a specific permission to excavate in a particular place.

Was the permission in writing? — It was, and addressed by the Porte to the local authorities, to
whom I delivered it ; and I have retained none of them. In a letter I addressed to Mr. Long in the
year 1811, I made use of these words : — “ That the ministers of the Porte were prevailed upon, after
much trouble and patient solicitation, to grant to me an authority to remove what I might discover, as
well as draw and model.”

Does your Lordship suppose this to have been the same form of permission that had been given to
other people; and that your Lordship employed it to a greater extent than other people? — It was so
far different, that no other person had applied for permission to remove or model.

Does your Lordship know whether any permission had been granted to any other person to remove
or model? — Monsieur de Choiseul had the same permission; and some of the things he removed are
paw in my collection,

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c. J5

He removed them while he was minister at the Porte? — Yes.

Had that permission ever been granted to excavate and remove, before Monsieur Choiseul had it?

— I do not know.

There seems to be a considerable difference between, to excavate and remove, and to remove and
excavate : the question was not, whether your Lordship was permitted to remove what you should find
on excavation, but whether your Lordship was permitted to remove from the walls? — I was at liberty
to remove from the walls ; the permission was to remove generally.

Was there any specific permission alluding to the statues particularly? — I do not know whether it
specified the statiies, or whether it was a general power to remove. I was obliged to send from Athens
to Constantinople for permission to remove a house.

That was a house belonging to the Turkish government: did not yotir Lordship keep any copy of
any of the written permissions that were given to your Lordship? — I kept no copies whatever; every
paper that could be of use at Athens, was left there as a matter of course, because Lusieri continued
there : the few papers I brought away with me, were burnt on my detention in France ; my private
papers I mean, and all my accounts, which I had brought away from Turkey.

In point of fact, your Lordship has not in England any copy of any of those written permissions?

— None.

Did the Committee understand you to say, that it is possible Lusieri has such copies? — Certainly ;
they will be at Athens, either in his possession, or in the possession of the authorities there.

Has your Lordship any distinct recollection of having had such copies of the authorities, and of
having left them in Lusieri’s possession? — I cannot speak to the fact so precisely as the Committee
may wish ; the authority itself was given over to the proper officer ; and then Lusieri obtained from
him any part of it that was necessary to be exhibited on any future occasion.

Did your Lordship, for your own satisfaction, keep any copy of the terms of those permissions ? —
No, I never did ; and it never occurred to me that the question would arise ; the thing was done
publicly before the whole world. I employed three or four hundred people a day ; and all the local
authorities were concerned in it, as well as the Turkish government.

When your Lordship stated, that the permission granted to your Lordship was the same that had
been granted to other individuals, with the difference only of the extent of means, did you mean to
convey to the Committee, that permissions to remove Marbles and carry them away had been granted
to other individuals? — No ; what I meant to say was this, that as far as any application was made to
the Turkish government through me, or to my knowledge, the same facilities were granted in all cases.
I did not receive more as ambassador, than they received as travellers ; but as I employed artists,
those permissions were added to my leave. I am not aware of any particular application being made
for a specific leave that was not granted, where a similar leave was granted to myself.

Your Lordship has stated, that no individual had applied for leave to remove? — To the best of
my recollection, no application had been made to remove.

No application, either through you, or to your knowledge? — Yes ; as far as I can recollect.

Of course your Lordship means to except the permission that you stated before had been long
antecedently given to Monsieur Comte de Choiseul? — Yes.

Do you know, in point of fact, whether the same permission was granted to Monsieur Comte de
Choiseul as was granted to you? — He exercised the same power.

But you do not know whether he had the same permission? — No.

Then, within your Lordship’s knowledge, there is no instance of a private individual having obtained
such permission? — I have no knowledge of any individual having applied for it, and I do not know
whether it has been granted or not. I do not know that there was any difficulty in the way of removing,
by anybody.

Was it necessary that those powers should be renewed after your Lordship came away, and that

The

Earl of Eight.

The

Earl of Elgin.

MINPTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

the artists already employed by you are employed ostensibly by the ministers there . Ido not
what distinction there is between Lusieri and any other artist.

Is he acting under the permission your Lordship obtained?— There has been war since.

Has it been renewed to your Lordship, or individually to themselves?— They have made the
application through the channel they thought proper; what it was I do not know ; but it was probably
the same permission that Lord Aberdeen had, and many other travellers that have been there.

Your Lordship does not know whether it was renewed to your Lordship or to Mr. Liston, or
whether they are acting under a permission granted to him, or individual permissions granted to the
artists?— I do not know what the detail is; I conclude they are acting exactly as any other traveller
there is ; there is no advantage from the ambassadorial title that I had then, that can apply to them
now, because there has been war since.

Have they power to excavate, model, and remove? — They have removed a great deal from thence.

And you do not know in what shape those powers have been renewed since the war? — No,
I do not.

In the letter to Mr. Long, which you have stated, you speak as having obtained these permissions
after much trouble and patient solicitation ; what was the nature of the objections on the part of the
Turkish government? — Their general jealousy and enmity to every Christian of every denomination,
and every interference on their part. I believe, that from the period of the reign of Louis the
Fourteenth, the French government have been endeavouring to obtain similar advantages, and
particularly the Sigean Marble.

They rested it upon that general objection? — Upon the general enmity to what they called
Christian Dogs.

That was not the manner in which they stated their objection? — No; but that is the fact; it
was always refused.

Without reasons ? — Without reasons assigned ; every body on the spot knew what those reasons
were ; that they would not give any facility to any thing that was not Turkish.

All your Lordship’s communications with the Porte were verbal? — There was nothing in writing
till an order was issued.

The objection disappeared from the moment of the decided success of our arms in Egypt? — Yes;
the whole system of Turkish feeling met with a revolution ; in the first place, from the invasion by the
French, and afterwards by our conquest.

Your Lordship has stated in your Petition, that you directed your attention in an especial manner
to the benefit of rescuing from danger the remains of Sculpture and Architecture ; what steps did you
take for that purpose? — My whole plan was to measure and to draw every thing that remained and
could be traced of architecture, to model the peculiar features of architecture: I brought home a piece
of each description of column for instance, and capitals and decorations of every description ; friezes
and moulds, and, in some instances, original specimens : and the architects not only went over the
measurements that had been before traced, but, by removing the foundations, were enabled to extend
them, and to open the way to further inquiries, which have been attended since with considerable
success.

You state, that you have rescued the remains from danger? — From the period of Stuart’s visit to
Athens till the time I went to Turkey, a very great destruction had taken place. There was an old
temple on the Ilissus had disappeared. There was,' in the neighbourhood of Elis and Olympia, another
temple, which had disappeared. At Corinth, I think Stuart gives thirteen columns, and there were
only five when I got there : every traveller coming, added to the general defacement of the statuary in
his reach : there are now in London pieces broken off within our day. And the Turks have been
continually defacing the heads ; and in some instances they have actually acknowledged to me, tha};
they have pounded down the statues to convert them into mortar. It w'as upon these suggestions;, and

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c. 17

with these feelings, that I proceeded to remove as much of the sculpture as I conveniently could : it
was no part of my original plan to bring away any thing but my models.

Then your Lordship did not do any thing to rescue them, in any other way than to bring away
such as you found ? — No; it was impossible for me to do more than that; the Turkish Government
attached no importance to them in the world ; and in all the modern walls, these things are built up
promiscuously with common stones.

It has been stated, that in a despatch from Turkey, at a very early period after your Lordship
went out, that your Lordship had an occasion to write to His Majesty’s Government concerning
your public appointment as a minister, and that you stated some circumstances distinctly to them
at that time, which showed your understanding and their understanding, that your proceedings
in Greece were entirely upon your own private account ; is that statement correct, that there is a
document in existence, dated in the year 1803, which will prove that fact? There is, precisely what
is alluded to in a despatch at the period of my leaving Turkey.

In point of fact, did the Turkish Government know that your Lordship was removing these
statues under the permission your Lordship had obtained from them? — No doubt was ever expressed
to me of their knowledge of it; and as the operation has been going on these seventeen years without
any such expression, so far as I have ever heard, I conclude they must have been in the intimate
knowledge of every thing that was doing.

In point of fact, your Lordship does not know that they were ever apprised of it? It is
impossible for me to have any doubt about it.

Did your Lordship ever apprise any of the Government of it in conversation ? — The chance is,
that I have done it five hundred times, but I cannot answer specifically when or how.

Did not the Committee understand your Lordship to say, that they must have so well under-
stood it, that in one instance your Lordship got a special order to remove a particular thing ?
There was a special permission solicited for the house : when I did excavate in consequence of
getting possession of that house, there was not a single fragment found : I excavated down to the
rock, and that without finding any thing, when the Turk to whom the house belonged came to me,
and laughingly told me, that they were made into the mortar with which he built his house.

Then the permission was to buy the house? — To pull it down.

Since 1803 has Lusieri continued to remove things? — ! can answer that question by a fact
of considerable importance. When I was in Paris a prisoner, in the year 1 805, living in Paris
perfectly tranquilly with my family, I received a letter from an English traveller, complaining of
Lusieri’ s taking down part of the frieze of the Parthenon. The next morning a common gens d’arme
came and took me out of bed, and sent me into close confinement, away from my family. Such was
the influence exercised by the French to prevent this operation.

Your Lordship attributed it entirely to the French?— Yes; the French sent me in that way
down to Melun.

In reference to what was stated in a passage of your Lordship’s Petition, will your Lordship be so
good as to say whether you have ever heard of the Turkish Government taking any care that the
works of art should not be destroyed ?— Certainly not ; within my knowledge nothing of the sort was
ever done; the military governor of the Acropolis endeavoured to keep them, after people had appeared
anxious to get them away.

So that the hesitation on the part of the Government your Lordship attributes to a dislike to the
Christians ? — The general apprehension of doing any act displeasing to the French operated at the
time the French were in Egypt.

Has your Lordship any knowledge of any particular application made to the Turkish Government
by any individual, and granted, of an equal extent with your Lordship’s ? — I have not any knowledge
of what has passed since, except the details of Lusieri’s owp operations.

The

Earl of Elgin.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

1 1
t

The

Earl of Elgin.

From an observation in part of your Lordship’s evidence, the Committee concluded that your
- Lordship has, since 1812, received several of these Marbles? — In the year 1812 about eighty cases
arrived.

Have there been any received subsequently ? — I believe there have ; but I am not very certain,
having been out of the country myself.

Did Monsieur Choiseul take down any of the metopes and the frieze ? — One piece of the metope
and some of the frieze ; the metope I bought at a public sale at the custom-house. It was at the time
I returned from France ; my things were dispersed all over the country ; and my agent told me of
some packages in the custom-house, without direction ; and I gave four or five-and-twenty pounds for
them at a lumber sale.

Thinking those packages to be your Lordship’s? — Yes.

When your Lordship heard of those cases being to be sold at a rummage sale, did your Lordship
make any application to the Government, stating that they had any interest in it, and that therefore
you ought not to be obliged to purchase? — No ; certainly not.

It was a matter of private purchase ? — Yes; these things had been left at Athens during the
whole of the French Revolution. Buonaparte allowed a corvette to call and bring these things for
Monsieur Choiseul, who was an intimate acquaintance of Monsieur Talleyrand. From the delay
which occurred, they did not get away in time to escape our cruisers. Monsieur Choiseul applied to
me to make interest with Lord Nelson, and I wrote to him, and he directed them to be sent home ;
and applied to Lord Sidmouth and Sir Joseph Banks, wishing Government to make such a purchase
as to secure the captors, but at the same time to restore the articles to Monsieur Choiseul. When
I left Paris Monsieur Choiseul remained in the belief that they were still at Malta, consequently I
had no clue to guess these were his at the time of the purchase in the year 1 806 ; but I immediately
wrote to him, to state what these things were, as I had no doubt they were his by the metope ; and in
the year 1810 he wrote to me, stating that his were still at Malta: when I went over to Paris last
year I took a memorandum with me for him, and satisfied him they were his ; but he has never yet
sent about them, and I do not know what he means to do at all ; but there they are, marked among
my things as belonging to him.

Does your Lordship know, that subsequent to your coming away, and during the time we were
at war, any similar permission was applied for, and obtained by the French? — I do not know any
thing about that; but in point of fact, my cases were at the harbour during the whole of the war ; and
if the French Government had had any thing that they could have put afloat, they would have taken
them.

Did that seizure apply to the property of all English characters; or, did it apply to your
Lordship’s as a public character, and therefore the property of the country? — Besides the boxes at
the harbour, Lusieri’s magazines were filled in the town of Athens ; and immediately after his flight
they broke those open, and sent them to Yanana, and from thence to Buonaparte.

Was not Lusieri considered as an agent of your Lordship’s in your public character ? — No ; cer-
tainly not.

Your Lordship had applied for him to do what he was doing; and was he not in that way con-
sidered as your Lordship’s agent, and therefore subject to the same liability as your Lordship was, to
have whatever was in his possession seized? — He was considered as an English subject, as far as’ his
connection with me went ; but his property was stolen in fact : his property and mine was promiscu-
ously taken, they did not do it officially.

Was any objection made by the chief magistrate of Athens, against taking away these Marbles, as
exceeding the authority received from Constantinople ? — There was no such objection ever made. ’

Was ever any representation made of any kind? — None that I ever heard of.

Does your Lordship believe, to the best of your judgment, that you obtained, in your character

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c. 19

of ambassador, any authority for removing these Marbles, which your Lordship would not have
obtained in your private capacity, through the intervention of the British ambassador ? — I certainly
consider that I obtained no authority as given to me in my official capacity (I am speaking from my
own impression ;) the Turkish Government did not know how to express their obligation to us for the
conquest of Egypt, and for the liberality that followed from Government, and of course I obtained
what I wanted ; whether I could have obtained it otherwise or not, I cannot say ; Lusieri has obtain-
ed the same permission seventeen years, in the course of which time we have been at war with
Turkey. Monsieur De Choiseul had permission, under very different circumstances ; but, in point of
fact, I did stand indebted to the general good-will we had ensured by our conduct towards the Porte,
most distinctly I was indebted to that; whether Monsieur Choiseul s example could be quoted or not,
is a matter of question.

In your Lordship’s opinion, if Lord Aberdeen had been at Constantinople at the time your
Lordship was ambassador there, could you have obtained the same permission for Lord Aberdeen
as an individual, that you did as ambassador obtain for yourself? — I can only speak from conjecture.
The Turkish Government, in return for our services in Egypt, did offer to the British Government
every public concession that could be wished. They were in a disposition that I conceive they would
have granted any thing that could have been asked : I entered upon the undertaking in the expectation
that the result of our expedition for the relief of Egypt would furnish opportunities of this sort.

Then the result of the impression on your Lordship’s mind would be, that other advantages
granted by the Turkish Government were on the same principle as the permission to your Lordship
to remove these Marbles, and rather out of public gratitude for the interference of England ? I
believe it was entirely that, and nothing else ; I was not authorized to make any application in the
name of Government for this ; but I wish it to be distinctly understood, that I looked forward to this,
as that which was to enable me to execute the plan ; and to that I am indebted for it. Whether
under other circumstances 1 could hav^ obtained the facilities Monsieur Choiseul had had before, I
cannot answer.

When your Lordship received this, which you considered as a proof of the public gratitude of the
Turkish Government to England, did your Lordship mention the circumstance in any of your despatches
to Government ? — I should suppose not in any other despatch than that which has been alluded to.

That was upon leaving Turkey, was not it? — Yes.

If your Lordship considers it as a mark of the public gratitude of the Porte to Great Britain,
does not your Lordship consider that mark of gratitude essentially connected with your character of
representative of the Court of Great Britain at the Porte? — I did not ask it in that character,
nor did I ask it as a proof of the disposition of the Porte ; but I availed myself of that disposition to
make the application myself.

Does your Lordship suppose, that if that application had been made at that particular period by
any other person than the ambassador of Great Britain, it would have been granted ? — In my own
mind I think it would, if he had had means of availing himself of it ; that is to say, if he had*determined
to risk his whole private fortune in a pursuit of such a nature.

When your Lordship mentioned that general disposition of the Turkish Government, do you mean
that it was as well to individuals in their private capacity, as to any demand made by the Government?
To every body.

In short, it was a disposition of good-will towards Englishmen ? — Of cordiality towards Englishmen,
to an extent never known before.

In making the application to the Turkish Government for permission to remove these Marbles,
did your Lordship state to them the objects you had in view in so removing them, whether for the
purpose of collecting an assemblage of these things as matter of curiosity for yourself, or for the pur-
pose of bringing them to this country for the improvement of the arts ? — In explanation it must

The

Earl of Elgin.

■

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

The

Far l of Elgin.

have been so stated ; whether there was any formal application bearing upon your question, I cannot
„ undertake to say.

Was it or not stated to the Turkish Government, that it was for the purpose of forming a private
museum, or for public uses ? — I am afraid they would not have understood me, if I had attempted a
distinction.

In what way did your Lordship distinguish, in your applications to the Turkish Government,
between your private and public capacity?- — I never named myself in my public capacity, not
having any authority to do so : this wras a personal favour, and it was granted quite extra officially
to me.

And asked as such? — Asked as such, and granted as such.

The Fermauns granted to your Lordship, were not, as the. Committee collect from your statement
to day, permissions to take particular pieces, one from the city and one from the citadel, and so on ? —
No ; I had never been at Athens, and could not specify any thing.

In point of fact, the Fermaun was not so? — It was not; there could not have been an application
for specific things.

Suppose the transaction had passed in this way, that your Lordship was anxious to have some of
these Marbles, the Government were willing to grant you a limited permission to take one or two
pieces ? — Certainly it was not so ; it must have been quite general.

Your Lordship has no certain recollection how it was? — No ; only that I did not know any thing
of the state of Athens, and consequently my application must have been general.

Veneris , 1° die Martii , 1816.
HENRY BANKES, Esq. in the Chair .

The Earl of Elgin, again called in, and' Examined.

WILL your Lordship be pleased to state the view under which the Collection was made ?

[The Earl of Elgin, in answer, delivered in the following papers, which were read.]

“ A Letter dated London, 14th February 1816, signed Elgin, addressed to the Right Honour-
able Nicholas Vansittart.”

“ A Memorandum as to his Lordship’s exclusive right of property in the Collection, dated
February 1816.”

“ A Memorandum as to the delay in transferring the Earl of Elgin’s Collection to the Public.”

Has your Lordship any account from which you can state to the Committee the actual sums
which your Lordship has paid in obtaining these Marbles, and in transporting them to this country ?

[His Lordship handed in a copy of a Letter addressed to Mr. Long on the 6th of May 1811,
with a Postscript dated 29th February 1816, addressed to the Chairman of this Committee;
which was read.]

Has your Lordship any paper which exhibits the total? — No other than as it is stated in that
letter, which I do not offer as a precise account, but it is merely to inform the Committee what was the
nature of the expense. •

Was any specific offer as to price, for obtaining those Marbles for the Public, made to your
Lordship by Mr. Perceval, and in what year ? - Yes ; I believe it was a few days after the date of
the above letter to Mr. Long, in the name of Mr. Perceval, he did intimate to me, as I understood,

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, 8cc.

that Mr. Perceval would be disposed to recommend the sum of £ 30,000 to be given for the Collection
as it then stood.

What passed in consequence of that offer? — I believe it is mentioned in the memorandum which
I have given in, accounting for the delay — paper marked No. 3 and which exactly states the
grounds on which I declined the offer : it follows immediately after the extract from the Dilettanti
publication, in these words: — “So that when Mr. Perceval, in 1811, proposed to purchase this
Collection, not by proceeding to settle the price, upon a private examination into its merits and value,
but by offering at once a specific sum for it; I declined the proposal as one which, under the above
impressions, wfould be in the highest degree unsatisfactory to the Public, as well as wholly inadequate
either in compensation of the outlay occasioned in procuring the Collection, or in reference to (what has
since been established beyond all doubt) the excellence of the sculpture, and its authenticity as the
work of the ablest artists of the age of Pericles.

Mr. Vansittart never made any specific offer on the part of the Public? — No, never, except in
what passed last year, which was afterwards dropped.

What further has passed relating to the transfer of those Marbles to the Public, since 1811?
— In the spring of 1815, Burlington House having been sold, Lord George Cavendish intimated a
desire that I should remove the Marbles from thence in consequence. I applied to the Trustees of
the British Museum to take them in deposit, considering that the circumstances of the times might not
make it convenient for the Public to enter upon the transfer. In reply, the British Museum
rejected my proposal, as not being consistent with their usual mode of proceedings, and they appointed
three of their Members to enter into negociation with me for the transfer ; which nomination, after
some discussion, led to the Petition which I presented to Parliament in the month of June following.

Is there any price, in your Lordship’s estimation of these Marbles, lower than which you would
not wish to part with them? — No ; there is no standard fixed in my mind at all.

Are there any persons by whom this Collection has been valued? Not any one, to my knowledge.

Are the gentlemen mentioned in the list you have delivered in, designed on your Lordship’s part
to be examined as to the value of the Collection? — I gave in that list as thinking them proper persons,
without consulting them on the occasion; they are the individuals best acquainted with the subject;
and I fancy it would be satisfactory to the Public that they should be examined.

Are there any and what additional articles now offered that were not included in the offer to
Mr. Perceval in 1811? — To the best of my knowledge about eighty additional cases of Architecture
and Sculpture have been added, and also a collection of Medals.

The Right Honourable Charles Long ( a Member of the Committee) Examined.

You having been referred to in Lord Elgin’s evidence, do vou recollect what passed on that occa-
sion?— Eariy in the year 1811 I was desired by Mr. Perceval to endeavour to ascertain, as far as I
could, the value of Lord Elgin’s Collection. I consulted various persons upon this subject ; and after
having done so, Mr. Perceval asked me, Whether I was satisfied that the Collection was worth
^.30,000? I told him I had no doubt it was worth that and more, from the testimony of those whom
I had consulted : upon which he authorized me to state to Lord Elgin, that he was willing to propose
that sum to Parliament for the purchase of the Collection, provided he made out, to the satisfaction of
a Committee of the House of Commons, that he had expended a sum equal to that amount in obtain-
ing, the Collection and transporting it to this country. Upon my interview with Lord Elgin, his
Lordship stated an account of his expenses amounting to double that sum, and declined the offer of
Mr. Perceval.

The

Earl of Elgin.

Right Hon.
Charles Long.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

William Hamilton, Esq. called in, and Examined.

Have you looked into Lord Elgin's correspondence at the Foreign Office, when he was ambas-
sador, and do you find any correspondence on the subject of these Marbles? — I have examined the
correspondence, and I have with me an extract of a despatch from his Lordship to Lord Hawkesbury,
dated the 13th of January 1803. [It was delivered in , and read.]

Is that the only trace of reference to his Lordship’s pursuits in Greece, that you can find in the
public correspondence? I have not examined the whole of the correspondence, so that I cannot

precisely say whether it is the only reference, but it is that to which my attention was particularly
called.

Are you enabled to throw any light upon the question, Whether these Marbles were to be con-
sidered as having been acquired by his Lordship in his public capacity as ambassador to the Porte? —
I never heard any grounds whatever for that opinion until within a few years during the time that I
was in Tuikey: it was never, to my knowledge, mentioned by individual travellers, or by any of his
Majesty’s officers.

Do you recollect any circumstances that have a contrary tendency? — I particularly recollect, when
I was in Egypt, asking, by desire of Lord Elgin, Sir Richard Bickerton to assist his Lordship in
carrying away from the coast of Greece some part of his Collection. He asked me whether those
ai bles were intended by Lord Elgin for the Public, or whether they were his sole private property :
I told him, exclusively the latter.

Did you not attend Lord Elgin to Greece; and were you not acquainted with much of the detail
of the means of obtaining permission to remove those statues, as well as of the circumstances attending
their removal ? I attended Lord Elgin on his way to Greece only as far as Sicily ; from whence X
went to Rome, by his desire, for the purpose of engaging the artists who were to carry on his
operations at Athens. I joined Lord Elgin at Constantinople, in May 1800 ; my employment in his
family did not necessarily put me exactly in the way of being acquainted with his communications with
the Turkish Government respecting this subject. I was more immediately employed in the public
business of the embassy ; and about twelve months afterwards I went to Egypt, and never returned to
Constantinople during Lord Elgin's embassy.

Have you any impression on your mind as to the nature of the permission that was granted by the
X urkish Government ?— None, of my own knowledge.

Through whom, and with whom, were the communications upon the subject of these permissions to
obtain Marbles, and objects from Greece, carried on? — All communications between the British
ambassador at Constantinople, and any persons connected with the Turkish Government were carried
on through the interpreter of the embassy; and the individuals in the Turkish Government who were
particularly applied to on this subject by Lord Elgin, were the Captain Pacha and the Sultan’s mother.

Were you present at Athens during the removal of any part of the Marbles? — Yes I was

During the removal of those that were taken from the Parthenon ?- Yes, I was.’ I cannot say
that I was present at Athens when any one particular object was taken down from the Parthenon ■ but
the operations in general were going on while X was there, I had nothing to do with them myself,
being at Athens quite as a private individual. J

Athens^? * iT" T Create ^ SenSati0“ either am°Dg the princiPal persons or the ^habitants of
A hensr-No unpleesant sensation whatever: they seemed rather to feel it as a means of bringing
foreigners into the country, and of having money spent amongst them. § *

exposed ifLordF, ^ ^ °f deSt™tion ‘0 which those Marbles would have been

ZZ i» hadf'd r,n° rTnthem?~Fr0m the State °f ‘ de§radatiou ■" ^icb ‘hey were,
the injury they had evtdently suffered during the last fifty years, it was clear that there was a continued

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c. 23

system of destruction going on, as well from the wantonness of the Turks, who amused themselves with William Hamilton,

firing upon the objects ; and from the invitation that was held out by occasional travellers to the 2

soldiers, and other people about the fortress, to bring them down heads, legs, or arms, or whatever else
they could easily carry off.

Have you ever seen Nointel’s drawings of the Parthenon, as it appeared in the year 1678? Yes,

I have.

Have not great dilapidation and degradation of the monuments taken place since that peiiod,
supposing Nointel’s drawings to be correct? — Very great degradation indeed. As one instance, there
was one large colossal figure, which is in the centre of the west pediment, almost entire in Nointel’s
time, of which Lord Elgin has only recovered, and that with difficulty, (it having been found amongst
the ruins of the Temple,) a small part of the chest and shoulders.

How much, according to your best recollection, did remain of the numerous, and in many
instances perfect, figures, which Nointel describes as existing in the west pediment? There appears to
be nineteen in Monsieur Nointel’s drawing of the west pediment. I do not think, when Lord Elgin s
artists began, that there were above seven or eight remaining : the whole of the centre had fallen to the
ground long before the time that I was at Athens : I understood that one of the heads of the figures
that are still left was broken off by a Turk, and dashed in pieces on the marble pavement.

Are you acquainted with the transaction relating to the purchase of the Phygalian Marbles ? ( March 8.)

Yes, I am. The best information I can give to the Committee, on the subject of the purchase of the
Phygalian Marbles, is contained in a memorandum, the copy of which I put into Mr. Longs hands
about ten days ago. This is the paper. [ft was rea^ as follows.]

“ Memorandum on the Purchase of the Phygalian Marbles , on Account of the
British Government.

“ When the first intelligence of the discovery of the Phygalian Marbles, by a party of

English and German travellers, in the month of 1812, was received in England,

I heard, owing to my intimacy with the family of Mr. Cockerell, father of one of the fortunate
discoverers, frequent and detailed accounts of the beauty of these remains of antiquity, and the
extraordinary state of preservation in which they had been found, notwithstanding the lapse of
more than twenty centuries since they had been sculptured. In that, and the subsequent year,
drawings of the bas-reliefs were received in England by various hands ; particularly some very
correct ones by Mr. C. R. Cockerell, brought by Mr. Frederick North, all attesting the beauty of
the composition, and eminently satisfactory with regard to the age in which they had been made.

These drawings I saw frequently exhibited to persons the most competent to form a judgment of
the merit of the originals; and they met with universal admiration, both in general society, and
particularly at the meetings of the Dilettanti Society. It was on all hands hoped that they might
be purchased by the British Government, and that they would not be deterred by the bad success
of the negociation for the iEgina Marbles, from becoming competitors also for these. These
feelings were also expressed by several of the Trustees of the British Museum, but in such geneial
terms, that I was not very sanguine of what seemed to be the wish of all being brought about by
the efficient co-operation of a few; though I was aware that this offered the only chance of
success. Perhaps the failure of the two successive attempts, which had been made for the pur-
chase of the iEgina Marbles, damped, in some measure, the disposition of those who, from their
public situation and correct judgment in all matters of taste, were qualified and entitled to
interfere. However it was, the time for the public sale, announced for the 1st of May, 1814,
was fast approaching, and no steps were taken for the attainment of the object, of which I was

I it

tUj

'<(

!* ,
tj

24 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

William Hamilton, aware, beyond a few visits, which I received about that time from General Turner, to express the

— hopes of the Prince Regent, to whom the drawings, brought home by Mr. North, had been

submitted by Mr. Cockerell, the father, that the Marbles in question would be purchased ; and
from Mr. Planta, to express the same hopes on the part of the British Museum, though un-
authorized officially by the Trustees.

“ With regard to the supposed value of these Marbles, as none had been seen in England,
and scarcely any traveller of taste or judgment who had seen them at Corfu, except Mr. North,
had given his opinion in this country as to their relative or comparative merit; the only criterions
that any one could go by were, first, a comparison between the drawings of them and the
original works of Phidias in the Elgin Collection : and, secondly, the price put upon them by
the proprietors, below which it was formally declared that they would not be parted with ; and a
sum equal to which I was assured that one of the proprietors had offered to give, if the public sale
could be dispensed with, or if no larger sum were offered. His price was <£.15,000, or 60,000
Spanish dollars : the Collection might in fact be worth that sum, or more or less ; it was not
possible to anticipate. However, I felt confident, from the degree of merit which it was evident
they must possess, at the sight of drawings sent home by Mr. R. Cockerell, a gentleman incapable
of disguise, as well as from the interest which must necessarily be felt in every work of Grecian
art executed in the age of Pericles ; or, at least, in that immediately subsequent. Considering
likewise the general disappointment and regret which would be felt if the moment were lost, and
they should irrecoverably get into the hands of one of the Continental Sovereigns, I was convinced
that it would be desirable, for the cause of the arts in England, that the purchase should, if
possible, be effected.

“ Lold Castlereagh being at this time absent on the Continent, I applied forthwith to the
First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Colonial Secretary of
State ; and on laying before them the above considerations, I received from them severally their
consent, that the Governor of Zante should be authorized to effect the purchase, at a public sale,
to the amount mentioned. A messenger was immediately sent off, who arrived a few days
previous to the sale, and the bargain was concluded for 60,000 dollars.”

Was the purchase effected at £. 15,000?— The price was 60,000 dollars; by the course of
exchange it came to <£.19,000.

To w*lat circumstance was it owing a public sale could not be dispensed with? — Because the
property belonged half to Germans and half to Englishmen, and they would not allow any one, even of
the discoverers, to make the purchase, without a public sale. Mr. Lee, one of the Englishmen a
gentleman of large fortune in Warwickshire, I was assured, offered the money if he was allowed to take
them without a public sale, and I have that in Mr. Cockerell’s hand-writing.

Do you know what the expense of bringing them to England was?— No, I do not; they came
over in a ship of war or a transport, therefore I should think the expense would be very little.

You mentioned that the Public were disappointed respecting the rEgina Marbles ; in what way
was that? They were discovered, about two years before, by two English travellers and two German
travellers. Mr. Cockerell was one of the English discoverers, and he wrote a detailed account of it
r-T non 'T- mentloned’ that the ¥alue theJ set uP°n them at Athens, at that time, was

T,6 0°0. This being communicated, and being the subject of conversation at the Dilettanti Society,

Lord Haidwicke who is a member of that society, and a trustee of the British Museum, undertook to
i ecommend to the trustees of the British Museum, to request the authority of Government to make an
offer <£.6,000. The offer was made in the first instance through Mr. Cockerell ; but on these con-
ditions that we should be allowed to bring home the Marbles to England ; and, if they were found
worth <£,6,000, that we should have the refusal of them ; if not, they should be allowed to be exported,

EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c. 25

free of duty, for any other purchaser. This offer having arrived at Athens, was not accepted , for
they said it was a kind of blind bargain ; that they did not know what might become of them. After-
wards the British Museum sent out Mr. Combe, the superintendant of Antiquities, to Malta, to bid
<£.8,000, at a sale of them expected to take place on the first of November. He arrived a few days
before that date : he waited the month of November, but no sale took place, and he left his commis-
sion with the Governor of the island ; but in the mean time a private sale had taken place at Zante to
the Prince Royal of Bavaria; but, notwithstanding they were sold to the Prince Royal of Bavaria,
they were conveyed for a few months to Malta, for greater security : And there was a considerable
difference of opinion, whether we ought not to have insisted upon a second, sale, having been disap-
pointed in the first sale not having taken place at Malta, as it was publicly announced ; but it was
ultimately determined to give up the matter.

Can you state what sum the Prince Royal of Bavaria gave for those Marbles ? — I understood

£.6,000.

Do you know of what those iEgina Marbles consisted? — I think there were seventeen figures
with sixteen heads, which were found under the two pediments of the Temple of Jupiter at iEgina.

Of what proportions were the figures? — I should say between three and four feet.

Do you recollect what part of the Collection of my Lord Elgin was received after the year 1812?
— Yes : I have here a memorandum, which I will read in answer to the question. — •“ I have not been
able to ascertain, with precision, all the objects of sculpture and architecture which were added to
Lord Elgin’s Collection in the year 1812 ; but the following list contains the descriptions of all which
are already ascertained :

A. From the Tympanum.

The neck and shoulders of the colossal central figure of the west pediment, called by
Visconti, Neptune.

The forehead and eye-sockets of Minerva.

Two horses’ heads in one block.

B. Metopes.

Three Metopes, called severally, in Visconti’s list, Nos. 6, 9, and 13 : they are three of the
most perfect in the Collection.

C. Frieze.

Twenty slabs of the Procession, of which eighteen are marked 1812 : the other two are not
yet ascertained. Eight or ten of these eighteen are amongst the least mutilated of the
Collection : six of them are very much mutilated.

D. Detached Pieces of Sculpture, $c.

Ten or twelve heads of statues from Athens.

A large proportion of the marble vases, with sculptures and inscriptions.

All the sepulchral monumental sculptures ; which, however, are of later times, and of
inferior merit.

All the earthen vases from Athens.

All the ex-votos.

The Sarcophagus, with a cover, which is in very bad taste, and worth only the marble.

An antique lyre, in cedar wood.

Two antique flutes, in cedar wood.

10.

11.

12.

13.

William Hamilton,
Esq.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

William Hamiltont
Esq.

14. A richly-wrought bronze urn, with a marble urn which enclosed it.

15. A variety of inscriptions, which I have not yet been able to ascertain; but which I can

designate on reference to a book, in which I copied all which were received at an earlier
date. The inscriptions of the greatest interest were, however, received prior to 1812.

16. The medals added here, as they were not included in the offer to Mr. Perceval.

Of what antiquity do you consider the lyre and the flutes? — I have always conceived them to be
of the best times of Greece — the time of the Grecian Republic.

Have you looked at this Collection with any view to its money value? — Yes, I have: I have
made a valuation, which I will read if it is desired.

Theseus * <£.4,000

Ilissus 4,000

Female Group 4,000

Ditto ditto 4,000

Iris 2,000

Three Horses’ Heads • • 2,000

Torso of Neptune • m . . * • ■ 500

Remainder of the Pediment * • • • ■ 2,000

22,500 Pediment.

Metopes (19) 10,000

Fifty-three pieces of at <£.400 20,300

Bacchus 1,000

Caryatis 700

Casts from the Parthenon 1,000

Doric Columns and Architecture 400

Ionic ditto, and ditto 800

Inscriptions * 2,000

Etruscan Bas-reliefs 200

Vases from Athens 400

Bronze Vase 200

Medals 800

Drawings 500

£’.60,800

Articles on which no Value whatever is set in the foregoing List :

Casts from the Temple of Theseus.

Ditto from the Choragie Monument.

Sun Dial.

Various Heads from Athens.

An unique Lyre in cedar wood.

Two Flutes in ditto.

Sarcophagus — Fragments of Architecture and Sepulchral Monuments.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

Lima, 4° die Martii , 1816.
HENRY BANKES, Esq. in the Chair.

Joseph Nollekens, Esq. R. A. called in , and Examined.

ARE you well acquainted with the Collection of Marbles brought to England by Lord Elgin?—
I am.

What is your opinion of those Marbles as to the excellency of the work? — They are very fine;
the finest things that ever came to this country.

In what class do you place them, as compared with the finest Marbles which you have seen
formerly in Italy? — I compare them to the finest of Italy.

Which of those of my Lord Elgin's do you hold in the highest estimation? — I hold the Theseus
and the Neptune two of the finest things ; finer than any thing in this country.

In what class do you place the bas reliefs? — They are very fine, among the first class of bas relief
work.

Do you think that the bas reliefs of the Centaurs are in the first class of art? — I do think so.

Do you think the bas relief of the frieze, representing the Procession, also in the first class of the
art? — In the first class of the art.

Do you conceive those two sets to be of or about the same date? — I cannot determine upon that.

Have you ever looked at this Collection with a view to the value of it? — No, I have not.

Can you form any sort of estimate of the value of it? — I cannot say any thing about the value.

Do you think it very desirable, as a National object, that this Collection should become public
property ? — Undoubtedly.

Can you form any judgment as to the date of those works, comparing them with other works that
you have seen in Italy? — I suppose they are about as old; but they may be older or later.

To which of the works you have seen in Italy do you think the Theseus bears the greatest resem-
blance?— I compare that to the Apollo Belvidere and Laocoon.

Do you think the Theseus of as fine sculpture as the Apollo ? — I do.

Do you think it is more or less of ideal beauty than the Apollo ? — I cannot say it is more than
the Apollo.

Is it as much ? — I think it is as much.

Do you think that the Theseus is a closer copy of fine nature than the Apollo? — No; I do not
say it is a finer copy of nature than the Apollo.

Is there not a distinction amongst artists, between a close imitation of nature and ideal beauty ? —
I look upon them as ideal beauty and closeness of study from nature.

You were asked just now if you could form any estimate of the value of this Collection ; can you
put any value upon them comparatively with the Townley Marbles ? — I reckon them very much higher
than the Townley Marbles for beauty.

Suppose the Townley Marbles to be valued at <£.20,000, what might you estimate these at? —
They are quite a different thing : I think the one is all completely finished and mended up, and these
are real fragments as they have been found, and it would cost a great deal of time and expense to put
them in order.

For the use of artists, will they not answer every purpose in their present state? — Yes, perfectly;
1 would not have them touched.

Joseph Nollekens,
Esq.

Joseph NolleJcens,
Esq.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Have you seen the Greek Marbles lately brought to the Museum ? — I have.

How do you rank those in comparison with these? — Those are very clever, but not like those of
Lord Elgin’s.

Then you consider them very inferior? — No ; I consider them inferior to Lord Elgin’s; not very
inferior, though they may be called inferior.

Were you ever in Greece yourself? — No, never further than Rome and Naples.

When you studied in Italy, had you many opportunities of seeing remains of Grecian art? — I saw
all the fine things that were to be seen at Rome, in both painting and sculpture.

Do you remember a piece of bas relief representing Bacchus and Icarus in the Townley Collection?
X recollect all those things ; I used to spend my Sundays there with Mr. Townley.

Do you happen to recollect particularly that piece? — No, I do not recollect it among the great
quantity of things.

Have you formed any idea of the value of these objects in the light of acquisitions to individuals,
as objects of decoration, if sold individually ? — I cannot put a value upon them; they are by far
the finest things that ever came to this country.

Do you mean by that, that you consider them so valuable, that you cannot put a value upon
them ? — No, I do not know; as to fine things, they are not to be got every day.

Do you consider part of the value of the Townley Collection to have depended upon the cost and
labour incurred in restoring them? — As for restoring them, that must have cost a great deal of money :
I know Mr. Townley was there for years about them.

Have the Elgin Collection gained in general estimation and utility since they have been more
known and studied ? — Yes.

John Flaxman ,
Esq.

John Flaxman, Esq. R. A. called in , and Examined.

Are you well acquainted with the Elgin Collection of Marbles? — Yes, I have seen them
. frequently, and I have drawn from them ; and I have made such inquiries as I thought necessary
concerning them respecting my art.

In what class do you hold them, as compared with the first works of art which you have seen
before? — The Elgin Marbles are mostly bassonrelievos, and the finest works of art I have seen. Those
in the Pope’s Museum, and the other galleries of Italy, were the Laocoon, the Apollo Belvidere ; and
the other most celebrated works of antiquity were groups and statues. These differ in the respect that
they are chiefly basso-relievos, and fragments of statuary. With respect to their excellence, they are
the most excellent of their kind that I have seen ; and I have every reason to believe that they were
executed by Phidias, and those employed under hirq, or the general design of them given by him at the
time the Temple was built; as we are informed he was the artist principally employed by Pericles and
his principal scholars, mentioned by Pliny, Alcamenes, and about four others immediately under him ;
to which he adds a catalogue of seven or eight others, who followed in order; and he mentions their
succeeding Phidias in the course of twenty years. I believe they are the works of those artists ; and in
this respect they are superior almost to any of the works of antiquity, excepting the Laocoon and Toro
Earnese ; because they are known to have been executed by the artists whose names are recorded by
the ancient authors. With respect to the beauty of the basso-relievos, they are as perfect nature as it
is possible to put into the compass of the marble in which they are executed, and that of the most
elegant kind. There is one statue also which is called a Hercules or Theseus, of the first order of
merit. The fragments are finely executed ; but I do not, in my own estimation, think their merit
is as great.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

What fragments do you speak of? — Several fragments of women ; the groups without their heads.

You do not mean the Metopes? — No; those statues which were in the east and west pediments
originally.

In what estimation do you hold the Theseus, as compared with the Apollo Belvidere and the
Laocoon? — If you would permit me to compare it with a fragment, I will mention, I should estimate
it before the Torso Belvidere.

As compared with the Apollo Belvidere, in what rank do you hold the Theseus? 'For two
reasons, I cannot at this moment very correctly compare them in my own mind. In the first place,
the Apollo Belvidere is a divinity of a higher order than the Hercules ; and therefore I cannot so well
compare the two. I compared the Hercules with a Hercules before, to make the comparison more
just. In the next place, the Theseus is not only on the surface corroded by the weather ; but the
head is in that impaired state, that I can scarcely give an opinion upon it ; and the limbs are mutilated.
To answer the question, I should prefer the Apollo Belvidere certainly, though I believe it is only
a copy.

Does the Apollo Belvidere partake more of ideal beauty than the Theseus ? — In my mind it does
decidedly : I have not the least question of it.

Do you think that increases its value? — Yes, very highly. The highest efforts of art in that class
have always been the most difficult to succeed in, both among ancients and moderns, if they have suc-
ceeded in it. i

Supposing the state of the Theseus to be perfect, would you value it more as a work of art than,
the Apollo? — No; I should value the Apollo for the ideal beauty before any male statue I know.

Although you think it is a copy ? — I am sure it is a copy ; the other is an original, and by a first
rate artist.

The Committee is very anxious to know the reason you have for stating so decidedly your opinion
that the Apollo is a copy? — There are many reasons; and I am afraid it would be troublesome to
the Committee to go through them. The general appearance of the hair, and the mantle of the Apollo
Belvidere, is in the style more of bronze than of marble ; and there is mentioned in the Pope s
Museum (Pio Clementino) by the Chevalier Visconti, who illustrated that museum, that there was a
statue in Athens, I do not know whether it was in the city or some particular temple, or whether the
place is mentioned, an Apollo Alexicacos, a driver away of evil, in bronze, by Calamis, erected on
account of a plague that had been in Athens : from the representations of this statue in basso-relievos
with a bow', it is believed that this figure might be a copy of that. One reason I have given is, that
the execution of the hair and cloak resembles bronze. But another thing convinces me of its being a
copy: I had a conversation with Visconti and Canova on the spot; and my particular reason is this,
a cloak hangs over the left arm, which in bronze it was easy to execute, so that the folds on one side
should answer to the folds on the other ; the cloak is single, and therefore it is requisite that the folds
on one side should answer to the folds on the other ; there is no duplication of drapery : in bronze that
wras easy to execute, but in marble it was not ; therefore, I presume, the copyist preferred copying the
folds in front, but the folds did not answer to each other on one side and the other ; those on the back
appear to have been calculated for strength in the marble, and those in front to represent the bronze,
from which I apprehend they were copied. There is apother reason ; lyliich is, that the most cele-
brated figure of antiquity is mentioned by Pliny and its sculptor, the y enus of Cnidus by Praxiteles ;
and he mentions it in- a remarkable manner, for he says, the works of Praxiteles in the Ceramicus, not
only excel those of all other sculptors, but his own ; and this Venus excels all that he ever did. Now
it seems inconceivable, that so fine a statue as the Apollo could have been executed without it§
name being brought down to us, either by Pliny or Pausanias, if it had been esteemed the first statue
in thp world.

John Flaxman,
Esq.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Do you think it of great consequence to the progress of art in Britain that this Collection should
become the property of the Public? — Of the greatest importance, I think ; and I always have thought
so, as an individual.

Do you conceive practically, that any improvement has taken place in the state of the arts in this
country, since this Collection has been open to the Public ?— Within these last twenty years I think
sculpture has improved in a very great degree, and I believe my opinion is not singular ; but unless I
was to take time to reflect upon the several causes, of which that has been the consequence, I cannot
pretend to answer the question : I think works of such prime importance could not remain in the
country without improving the public taste and the taste of the artists.

In wliat class do you hold the Metopes, as compared with the Frieze ? — I should think, from a
parity of reasoning adopted between the Metopes and the flat basso-relievos with that adopted between
the Apollo Belvidere and the Theseus or Hercules, the Metopes are preferable to the flat basso-relievos,
inasmuch as the heroic style is preferable to that of common nature.

Should you have judged the Metopes to be of very high antiquity if you had seen them, not know-
ing from what temple they were brought? — I should certainly have taken them to be of the age to
which they are attributed, the age of Phidias.

What characteristic marks do you observe of high antiquity, as compared with the other works of
antiquity? — In the first place, I observe a particular classification of the parts of the body; and I
have adverted to the medical writer of that age, Hippocrates, and find that the distinctions of the body,
when they have been taken from the finest nature in the highest state of exercise, and in the best
condition, in all respects, which might be expected from those who possessed great personal beauty,
and cultivated habits of living most likely to produce it, and who were accustomed to see it frequently
in public exercises. This classification, which they appeared to prefer, is conformable to the distinctions
in the statues. It is well known, that in the writings of Hippocrates a great deal of atteqtion is paid
to the economy of the human body and its interior parts, but that its exteriors are not described as
our modern anatomists describe them, but in a simpler manner, by a general classification of parts
and muscles. What I would particularly say on the subject is this : Hippocrates describes the
edges of the ribs as forming a semicircle at the bottom of the upper thorax; he describes, with
some accuracy, the meeting and form of the upper part of the scapula and acromion with the
collar bone : that part is particularly marked in these figures. He describes the knee-pan as a single
bone ; and that was their manner of making the knee in the statues of that time : and, if I remember
right, also he describes the upper part of the basin bone, which is particularly marked in the antique
statues. In a few words, the form of the body has a classification of a simple kind in a few parts,
such as I find in the ancient anatomists, and such as are common in the outlines of the painted Greek
vases : besides, as far as I can judge from our documents of antiquity, the painted Greek vases for
example, those that come nearer to the time in which these Marbles are believed to be produced, are
conceived in the same character, and drawn in the same manner.

Did not that classification continue much later than the time of Pericles?— Yes, it did continue
later, but it became more complicated, and in some cases more geometrical.

Does the anatomy of these figures agree with the anatomy of the Laocoon or of the Toro Farnese ?
—They agree most with the loro Farnese. I cannot judge very accurately of that at this time, for
it was about to be removed from Rome at the time I was there, and it is very much broken. * In
respect to the Laocoon, I believe it to be a very posterior work, done after a time when considerable
discoveries had been made in anatomy in the Alexandrian school ; which I think had been com-
municated not only among physicians, but among artists all over Greece; and in the Laocoon the
divisions are much more numerous.

Do you observe any considerable difference in the conformation of the horses, between the
Metopes and the Procession ?— It is to be recollected, both in the Metopes and the Procession, that

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

different hands have been employed upon them, so that it is difficult, unless I had them before me, to
give a distinct opinion, particularly as the horses in the metopes have not horses’ heads : 1 do not
think I can give a very decided opinion upon it, but in general the character appears to me very much
the same.

Should you have judged the metopes and the frieze to be of the same age, if they had not come
from the same Temple? — Yes, undoubtedly I should.

Have you ever looked at this Collection, with a view to its value in money ? — I never have ; but
I conceive that the value in money must be very considerable, judging only from the quantity of
sculpture in it ; the question never occurred to me before this morning, but it appears to me that there
is a quantity of labour equal to three or four of the greatest public monuments that have lately been
erected ; and I think it is said, either in Chandler’s Inscriptions or in Stuart’s Athens, that the Temple
cost a sum equal to c£.500,000.

Have you seen the Greek Marbles lately deposited in the British Museum? — Yes.

In what class do you place those, as compared with the basso-relievos of Lord Elgin’s Collection ?
— ’With respect to the excellence of workmanship, the metopes and the basso-relievos of Procession
are very superior to those in the Museum, though the composition of the others are exquisite.

Which do you think the greatest antiquity ? — Lord Elgin’s ; the others I take to be nearly twenty
years later.

In what rate do you class these Marbles, as compared with Mr. Townley’s Collection? — I should
value them more, as being the ascertained works of the first artists of that celebrated age : the greater
part of Mr. Townley’s Marbles, with some few exceptions, are perhaps copies, or only acknowledged
inferior works.

Do you reckon Lord Elgin’s Marbles of greater value, as never having been touched by any
modern hand ? — Yes.

In what class do you hold the draped figures, of which there are large fragments? They
are fine specimens of execution ; but in other respects I do not esteem them very highly, except-
ing the Iris, and a fragment of the Victory.

Do you consider those to be of the same antiquity ? — I do.

Be pleased to account for the difference in their appearance? — I think sculpture at that time
made a great stride. Phidias having had the advantage of studying painting, first gave a great
freedom to his designs; that freedom he was able to execute, or to have executed, with great ease
in small and flat works; but as the proportions of the particular drawings of the figures were
not so well understood generally as they were a few years afterwards, there are some disproportions
and inaccuracies in the larger figures: the necessary consequences of executing great works when
the principles of an art are not well established.

Do you recollect two figures, that are sitting together with the arms over each other? — Yes.

Is your low estimation of the draped figures applicable to those? — My opinion may be
incorrect, and it may be more so by not having the figures before me; but I meant my observa-
tion to apply to all the draped figures.

Were the proportions of those statues calculated to have their effect at a particular distance?
I believe not; I do not believe the art had arrived at that nicety.

You have remarked probably those parts, particularly of the Neptune and some of the
Metopes, that are in high perfection, from having been preserved from the weather? — I have
remarked those that are in the best condition.

Did you ever see any statue higher finished than those parts, or that could convey an idea
of high finish more completely to an artist? — I set out with saying, that the execution is admirable.

In those particular parts have not you observed as high a finish as in any statue that ever you
saw? — YeS; and in some places a very useless finish, in my opinion.

John Tlaxman,
Esq.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

John Flaxman,
Esq.

Richard Wt estmacott,
Esq.

Do you think the Theseus and the Neptune of equal merit, or is one superior to the other ?
Chevalier Canova, when I conversed with him on the subject, seemed to think they were equal ; I
think the Ilissus is very inferior.

You think the Ilissus is inferior to the Theseus? — Extremely inferior: and I am convinced, if
I had had an opportunity of considering it with Chevalier Canova, he would have thought so too.

Can you inform the Committee, whether the climate of England is likely to have a different effect
upon the statues, from the climate from which they were brought, and whether it would be possible,
by keeping them under cover, to prevent the effect of the climate? — • Entirely.

You know the bas relief in the Townley Collection of Bacchus and Icarus? — Yes.
i What do you consider the workmanship of that, comparatively with any of Lord Elgin’s bas
reliefs? — Very inferior.

Richard Westmacott, Esq. R. A., called in, and Examined .

Are you well acquainted with the Elgin Marbles? — Yes.

In what class of art do you rate them ? — I rate them of the first class of art.

Do you speak generally of the principal naked figures, and of the metopes and the frieze ? — I
speak generally of their being good things, but particularly upon three or four groups ; I should say
that two are unequalled ; that I would oppose them to any thing we know in art, which is the River
God and the Theseus. With respect to the two principal groups of the draped figures, I consider
them also of their kind very superior to any thing which we have in this Country in point of
execution.

Do you reckon the metopes also in the first class of art ? — I should say generally, for style,
that I do.

Do you say the same of the frieze ? — I think, both for drawing and for execution, that they are
equal to any thing of that class of art that I remember.

Do the metopes and the frieze appear to you to be of the same age ? — They do not appear to
me to be worked by the same person, but they appear to me of the same age ; the mind in the com-
positions, the forms, and consent of action, only lead me to think so ; their execution being not only
unequal in themselves^ but very inferior to the Panathenasan Procession.

Do the general proportions of the horses appear to you to be the same ? — Generally so, I think.

Should you have judged the metopes to be of very high antiquity, if you had not known the Temple
from which they came? — I should consider them so from their form.

In what rate should you place the Theseus and the River God, as compared with the Apollo
Belvidere and the Laocoon ? — Infinitely superior to the Apollo Belvidere.

And how as to the Laocoon? — As to the Laocoon, it is a very difficult thing for me to answer
.the question, more particularly applying to execution, because there is not so much surface to the
Theseus or Ilissus as there is to the Laocoon ; the whole surface to the Laocoon is left, whereas to the
other we cannot say there is more than one-third of the surface left.

Which do you prefer ; the Theseus, or the River God ? — They are both so excellent, that I can-
not readily determine ; I should say the back of the Theseus was the finest thing in the world ; and that
the anatomical skill displayed in front of the Ilissus, is not surpassed by any work of art.

As compared with the figures that are on Monte Cavallo, how should you class those two works ?
— I consider them, in regard to nature and form, equal ; but that in playfulness of parts, the Theseus
and the Ilissus are superior.

Do they seem to approach nearly the same ages to execution ? — There is not sufficient surface for
me to judge of the execution in either.

Do you consider the remains of the draped female figures to be of the same excellence with the
figures just mentioned ? — ■ Yes ; certainly.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

Probably the same hand ? — Yes ; I have very little doubt of it.

Have you ever considered this Collection, with a view to value in money? — No, I have not.

Have you any means of forming such a calculation ? — I should not know how to form such a
calculation, not knowing any similar works to compare them with.

In what class do you estimate the Elgin Marbles, as compared with the Townley Marbles? —
Superior.

Are you acquainted with the Phygalian Marbles lately brought to the British Museum ? I have
seen them, and have examined them.

As compared with the Elgin has reliefs, which are superior? — The Elgin bas reliefs.

Which do you consider most ancient ? — I should think they are both of the same age, they both
seem to be the effort of a great mind ; but that the Phygalian Marbles do not appear to have had
men to execute them of the same talents with the persons who executed the others. There are parts
of the Phygalian Marbles which are equal in execution to the Elgin Marbles, (I am now speaking of
the draperies,) but in proportions they are unequal to the Elgin Marbles, which possess truth united with
form, which is the essence of sculpture.

Do you think it of great consequence to the improvement of art, that this Collection should
become the property of the Public ? — Decidedly so : from the great progress which has been made
in art in this country for the last fifty years, we have every reason to think, that even the present men,
as well as young men rising up, having these things to look to, are less likely to be mannered.

Do you think these Marbles are well calculated for forming a school of artists ? — I have no
doubt of it.

You state, that you think the Theseus much superior to the Apollo Belvidere; upon what particular
view do you form that opinion ? — Because I consider that the Theseus has all the essence of style
with all the truth of nature ; the Apollo is more an ideal figure.

And you think the Theseus of superior value, on that account? — Yes; that which approaches
nearest to nature, with grand form, artists give the preference to.

Do you think there is any comparison as to the value between these and the Townley Marbles? —
This Collection I consider as more a Collection for Government, and to form a school of study ; the
Townley Marbles have a certain decided value ; you can form a better estimate of those, because you
can make furniture of them ; these you could not, they are only fit for a school. The Townleyan
Marbles being entire, are, in a commercial point of view, most valuable : but the Elgin Marbles, as
possessing that matter which artists most require, claim a higher consideration.

Do not you think they might be divided into three or four lots, thut might be desirable to different
countries for that purpose ? — I think it would be a pity to break such a connected chain of art.

Do not you think it would answer that purpose? — No; I think each nation would regret that it
had not the other part, and that it would lower their value.

Francis Ch a untry, Esq. called in, and Examined.

Are you well acquainted with the Elgin Marbles? — I have frequently visited them.

In what class, as to excellence of art, do you place them ? — Unquestionably in the first.

Do you speak generally of the Collection? — I mean the principal part of the Collection, that part
that belonged to the Temple of Minerva.

As compared with the Apollo Belvidere and Laocoon, in what class should you place the Theseus
and the River God? — I look upon the Apollo as a single statue; the Theseus and the River God
form a part of a group. I think, looking at the group in general, I should say they are in the highest
style of art; that degree of finish which you see in the Apollo, would be mischievous in them. I think
they are quite in a different style of art from the Apollo.

Richard W estmacott,
Esq.

Francis Chauntry,
Esq.

liif'rrmti ni iimiriiiiiii~"

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Francis Chauntry,
Esq.

Are they not more according to common, but beautiful nature, than the Apollo ? Certainly ;
I mean nature in the grand style, not the simplicity of the composition visible in every part : but
simplicity and grandeur are so nearly allied, it is almost impossible to make a distinction.

Do you place the metopes, and the frieze of the Festival, in the highest class of art ? The frieze,
I do unquestionably ; the bas relief, I mean.

Do you think that superior, in execution and design, to the alto relievo ? — I do not know, speaking
of them comparatively ; they are different in their style.

Do they appear to you to be of the same age? — I think they do ; I never thought otherwise.

Do the horses appear to you to be treated in the same manner, and to be formed according to the
same principles ? — Considering the difference between basso relievo and alto relievo, I think they are;
but that makes a great difference in the general appearance of them.

In what class of art do you place the draped female figures ? — As applied to their situation,
I place them also in the first class ; but, if they were for the inside of a building, I should say they
were not in the first class ; those were for a broad light, consequently the drapery is cut into small
parts, for the sake of producing effect; for we find through the whole of that Collection, effect has
been their principal aim, and they have gained it in every point.

Have you ever looked at this Collection, with a view towards its value in money ? — I really do
not know what to compare them with.

In what class should you estimate these, as compared with the Townley Marbles? -In the
Townley Marbles we find individual excellence, but in these we find a great deal more ; we find
individual excellence combined with grand historical composition.

Do you reckon these of superior value, from never having been restored or retouched ? — I should
certainly think them not the worse for being in their present state.

Have you seen the Greek bas reliefs, lately brought to the Museum? — Yes, I have seen them.

How do you estimate them as works of art, as compared with the Elgin bas reliefs ? — I look upon
them as very fine in composition ; but in execution, what we must expect in works taken from the
outside of buildings ; works done by different people : they are very fine of their kind, but in point of
execution much inferior to Lord Elgin’s, and indeed inferior in design.

Which appears to you to be of the highest antiquity ? — I cannot say.

As compared with the figures on Monte Cavallo, how do you rate the Theseus ? — It is very much
in the same style.

Do you judge they are nearly of the same age? — 'That I cannot say ; that is a point that has been
so much disputed.

Do you think it of great importance to the art of sculpture, that this Collection should become the
property of the Public? — I think it of the greatest importance in a national point of view.

When you mention that these statues are rather calculated for a distant effect, do you mean they
are not very highly finished? — Yes; and that is very surprising; they are finished to a high degree,
but the arrangement is calculated to be seen at a great distance.

'Charles Rossi,
Esq.

tv ■’*

Charles Rossi, Esq. R. A. called in , and Examined.

Are you well acquainted with the Elgin Marbles ? — Yes.

In what class of art do you reckon them ? — The finest that I have ever seen.

Do you think any figures in Lord Elgin’s Collection equal to the Apollo Belvidere and the Lao-
coon ? — I think they are superior in my judgment.

Which do you consider as superior? — The Theseus and the River God, and the Torsos also;
there are one or two of them, but they are very much mutilated.

In what class of art do you reckon the metopes ? — The metopes I do not think so fine as the rest
.of the bas reliefs.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN'S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

Do you think the metopes are of the same antiquity as the frieze and other parts? — Yes, I
suppose they are.

Do you reckon the frieze of the Procession in the highest class of art? — Yes; they are in a supe-
rior style ; I should say they were jewels.

In what class do you reckon the draped female figures? — One in particular is a very fine thing,
I think.

Generally speaking, in what class do you place them ? In the very first.

Have you looked at this Collection, with a view as to its money value? — Never.

Have you seen the Greek Marbles lately brought to the British Museum? — Yes.

In what class do you place them, as compared with the basso relievos of the frieze ? I consider
them materially inferior to any of those of Lord Elgin s.

Do you think them of the same antiquity, or later or earlier ? — I have never thought about that.

Do you think it of great consequence to the progress of art in this Country, that this Collection
should become the property of the Public? — I think it is; it is the first Collection in the world,
I think. I wrote a note to my friend Canova, at Paris, as an inducement for him to come over,
saying, — If he had not seen Lord Elgin’s Marbles, he had seen nothing yet ; and when he saw them,
he was satisfied they were as fine things as he had ever seen.

Mortis, 5° die Martii, 1816.
HENRY BANKES, Esq. in the Chair.

Sir Thomas Lawrence, Knt. R. A. called in, and Examined.

Are you well acquainted with the Elgin Marbles ? Yes, I am.

In what class of art do you consider them ? — In the very highest.

Do you think it of importance that the Public should become possessed of those Marbles, for the
purpose of forming a school of art ? — I think they will be a very essential benefit to the arts of this
country, and therefore of that importance.

In your own particular line of art, do you consider them of high importance, as forming a national
school? — In a line of art which I have very seldom practised, but which it is still my wish to do, I
consider that they would ; namely, historical painting.

Have you had opportunities of viewing the antique sculpture which was formerly in Italy, and
recently at Paris? — Very recently at Paris.

Can you form any estimate of the comparative merit of the finest of the Elgin Marbles, as com-
pared with the finest of those works of art? — It is rather difficult ; but I think that the Elgin Marbles
present examples of a higher style of sculpture than any I have seen.

Do you conceive any of them to be of a higher class than the Apollo Belvidere? — I do;
because I consider that there is in them an union of fine composition, and very grand form, with a
more true and natural expression of the effect of action upon the human frame, than there is in the
Apollo, or in any of the other most celebrated statues.

Are you well acquainted with the Townley Collection of Marbles? — Yes, I am.

In what comparative class should you place the Elgin Marbles, as contrasted with those? — As
superior.

Do you consider them as more valuable than the Townley Collection? — Yes, I do.

Charles Rossi,
Esq.

Sir Tlios. Lawrence,
Knt.

36 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Sir Thos. Lawrence, Is that superiority, in your opinion, applied to the fitness of the Elgin Marbles for forming a school
’ of art, or is it as to what you conceive to be the money value ? — I mean as to both.

Are you acquainted with the Phygalian Marbles lately brought to the Museum? — Yes.

Compared with the Elgin bas reliefs, in what class do you estimate them? — I think generally,
that the composition of them is very fine ; that some of the designs are fully equal to those in the Elgin
Marbles ; but the execution generally is inferior.

Have you any thing that leads you to form any conjecture as to the age of the Phygalian Marbles,
compared with the age of the Elgin Marbles ? — I should guess that they must have been very nearly
of the same age.

Do you consider the metopes to be of equal or inferior sculpture to the frieze ? — I think that the
frieze of the Panathenaic Procession is of equal merit throughout. I do not think the same of the
metopes ; but I think that some of the metopes are of equal value with the frieze.

Do they appear to you to be of the same age? — Yes, I think so. The total and entire
difference of the character of relief appears to have arisen from the difference of situation in which
they were placed.

You have stated, that you thought these Marbles had great truth and imitation of nature; do you
consider that that adds to their value ? — It considerably adds to it, because I consider them as united
with grand form. There is in them that variety that is produced in the human form, by the alternate
action and repose of the muscles, that strikes one particularly. I have myself a very good collection
of the best casts from the antique statues, and was struck with that difference in them, in returning from
the Elgin Marbles to my own house.

What do you think of the Theseus, compared with the Torso Belvidere? — I should say that the
Torso is the nearest, in point of excellence, to the Theseus. It would be difficult to decide in favour
of the Theseus; but there are parts of the Torso in which the muscles are not true to the action, and
they invariably are in what remains of the Theseus.

Do you happen to know at what price that was valued in the Collection at the Louvre ? — I do not.

You have seen the Hercules of Lord Lansdowne’s Collection? — Yes.

What comparison does that bear to the Theseus or the Neptune? — I think it inferior.

Do you think it much inferior ? — There are parts that are very inferior. There are parts in that
that are very grand, and parts very inferior.

Do you think any estimate might be placed on these Marbles, by comparison with pictures ? —
fro; it would be very difficult: I cannot do it myself.

Do you consider, on the whole, the Theseus as the most perfect piece of sculpture, of a single
figure, that you have ever seen ? — Certainly, as an imitation of nature; but as an imitation of character
I could not decide, unless I knew for what the figure was intended.

Richard Payne Knight, Esq. called in, and Examined.

R. P. Knight, Are you acquainted with the Elgin Collection ? — Yes ; I have looked them over, not only former-
— ty> I have looked them over on this occasion, with reference to their value.

In what class of art do you place the finest works in this Collection ? — I think of things extant, I
should put them in the second rank — some of them : they are very unequal ; the finest I should put
in the second rank.

Do you think that none of them rank in the first class of art? — Not with the Laocoon and the
Apollo, and these which have been placed in the first class of art ; at the same time I must observe,
that their state of preservation is such, I cannot form a very accurate notion ; their surface is gone
mostly.

Do you consider them to be of a very high antiquity ? — We know from the authority of Plutarch,
that those of the Temple of Minerva, which are the principal, were executed by Callicrates and Ictinus,

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN'S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

and their assistants and scholars; and I think some were added in the time of Hadrian, from the style

of them. - mt

Do you consider what is called the Theseus and the River God, as works of that age.

River God I should think, certainly — of the Theseus I have doubts whether it was in that age, or
added by Hadrian ; there is very little surface about it, therefore I cannot tell : the River God is
very fine.

Do you consider the River God as the finest figure in the Collection ? Yes, I do. .

In what class do you rank the fragments of the draped female figures ? — They are so mutilated I
can hardly tell, but I should think most of them were added by Hadrian ; they are so mutilated I
cannot say much about them : they are but of little value except from their local interest, from having

been part of the Temple. . . f

In what class of art do you consider the metopes ? — The metopes I consider of the first class ot
relief: I think there is nothing finer ; but they are very much corroded : there are some of them very
poor ; but the best of them I consider as the best works of high relief.

Do you consider them as of high antiquity ? — I consider most of them as executed at the time o
the original building ; the others might have been finished since.

What proportion of them do you think are of the first class? — I should think a half at least.

In what class of art do you reckon the frieze of the Procession ? I think it is of the first c ass o
low relief : I know nothing finer than what remains of it ; there is very little of it.

Do you consider that as of the same high antiquity? — Certainly; all of it I think has been exe-
cuted at the first building of the Temple, as far as I can judge; they are very much mutilated.

Can you form any judgment as to what may be the money value of that Collection, or of the parts .

I have gone over them to make an estimate, and I will state the grounds on which I have done it ,
I have been over them three times, to form the value. I value that statue of Venus, which Lor
Lansdowne paid £. 700 for, at £. 1,400; and I valued Lord Elgin’s accordingly; and I put °n i fi ty
per cent, in consideration of their local interest. I valued the draped figures, w hich I think wou
worth very little if it were not for their local interest, at ■£. 2000. I do not know the \alue o t e
drawings.

[The Witness delivered in a paper, which was read as follows.]

“ Such of the Sculptures of the Temple of Minerva at Athens, as are of the time of Pericles,
are the work of Callicrates and Ictinus, or their assistants and scholars, to which the testimony of
Plutarch, the only ancient authority, is precise — rov Si ix<x.TopznSov Jla^ivum KaAAixparii?

*ai hcrivo?. — Phidias only made the statue of the Goddess, and presided (eth?*™) over the works
of Pericles in general.” — Plutarch’s Life of Pericles.

The Prices which have been paid to Roman Dealers, within my knowledge, for important Articles,
in this Country , are as follow : —

By Mr. Townley, to Jenkins, for the Discobolus

By the Marquis of Lansdowne, to D°, for a Hercules

By Mr. Townley, to D°, for the Relief of the Feast of Icarus

By D°, to Gavin Hamilton, for a large Venus

(I learn since, that Mr. Townley paid about £. 350 more in fees to have the
Venus exported.)

By the Marquis of Lansdowne, to D°, for a Mercury *

£.700

600

400

700

The two last articles were, however, unreasonably cheap, even at that time (forty years ago)
Hamilton not having been allowed a fair competition ; and the last having been clandestinely bi ought
from Rome. I think each of them worth more than any two articles in Lord Elgin s Collection,

it. P. Knight,
Esq.

: . '

R. P. Knight ,
Esq.

38 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

especially the latter, which is, in my judgment, of better sculpture ; and both are a thousand per cent
better in preservation, which has always been considered as of the utmost importance.

Recumbent statue of Hercules, as on the coins of Croto, with little of the surface

remaining «£•

Trunk of a male statue recumbent - 1,500

Back and shoulders of a trunk, on which the head of Hadrian appears to have been 200

Fragment of the head of a horse, very fine * 250

Fragments of about ten draped trunks, from the pediments of the Parthenon, most

of which appear to be of the age of Hadrian 2,000

Fourteen metopes, of various degrees of merit, all corroded, and mostly much

mutilated 7,000

Twelve pieces of the frieze of the cell, with parts entire 3,600

About thirty-five more, completely ruined 1,400

Three capitals, and part of a column, from the same temple 500

Plaster casts, from d° and other temples 2,500

A granite scarabous 300

A white marble soros complete and entire, but coarse 500

Various shafts and blocks of marble 350

D’ of porphyry 350

Various fragments of statuary and relief 500

Various d° of architecture 300

Caryates from the propylcea, much injured 200

Nine broken marble urns 450

One wrought brass d° 150

One inscribed earthen d° ] 50

Inscriptions, &c. •■••*•••• v. ... ^ 300

Medals ••!•••• 1,000

£. 25,000

Drawings

Do you conceive that if this Collection were to be publicly sold, it would produce the prices that
are named here? — No, not near half, if sold in detail; what any of the Sovereigns of Europe might
give for them collectively, I cannot pretend to say.

Do you conceive that the medals, if sold in England, would produce as much as they are valued at?

— Yes, certainly; and I think the cameo would.

Upon what authority do you state, that a great part of these Marbles belong to the time of Hadrian ?

— Frpm np other authority than Spon and Wheeler having thought one of the heads to be of that
Emperor, and later travellers having found no symbols of any deity upon it ; also from the draped
trunks, which seem to be of that complicated and stringy kind of work which was then in fashion ;
that is mere matter of opinion ; there is no authority as to the time when particular articles were made.

Upon which of the figures is it that you understand Spon and Wheeler to have recognised the head
of Hadrian ? — I can give no opinion on this point, having misunderstood Lord Aberdeen, from whose
conversation I had formed an opinion.

Have you ever seen Nointels drawing of that pediment, as it was at the time when Spon and
Wheeler saw it?— I have seen a copy of it, but it is so long since, that I do not recollect.

Do not you recollect that Spon and Wheeler’s observations were exceedingly loose, and in some
cases wholly inaccurate? — Very loose, certainly.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

And in some cases wholly inaccurate?— It is along while ago since I have adverted to them.

Do you recollect that Spon and Wheeler mistook the subjects of the Eastern for the Western
pediment, and vice versa ? — Mr. Visconti says so, but I have never examined it.

Do you not know that Stuart proves that fact? — I do not recollect it at all.

How would you value the Theseus, in comparison with the Belvidere Torso ; how would you class
it?— I should think it inferior in value ; what is called the Torso Belyidere I believe to be a copy of
Lysippus’s Hercules.

Do you happen to know the value that was put upon it, in the Collection of the Louvre t No.

Do you happen to know what was paid for the Borghese Collection? — I do not know what was to
be paid ; I know what has been paid.

Do you recollect a bas relief of Mr. Townley’s, of Bacchus and Icarus?— Yes.

Do you happen to know what that cost? — Mr. Townley paid Mr. Jenkins .£.400 for it.

Was not there a great deal of difficulty in removing any good work of art from Rome?— Very
great ; and that, is the reason why that Venus, in the British Museum, was sold so low.

There was great difficulty ?— The Pope had a selection always, and his judges were a little
susceptible, I believe, sometimes, and were bribed.

Did not the Pope, or the Sovereign of the country, elaim a pre-emption of any thing valuable ?
— Yes.

Therefore you would consider any good piece of sculpture brought to this country, as greatly
increased in value from the difficulties of removing it from Rome? — All that was included in the
price that was paid by Lord Lansdowne; every thing that is sent out of Rome, unless it is smuggled
out, must have the Pope’s permission.

You valued Lord Lansdowne’s Marbles? — Yes.

What value did you put on the Hercules?— <£. 1,000; it cqst Lord Lansdowne £.600 at Rome;
and I think I put the Mercury at £. 1,400. The trustees of William Lord Lansdowne let John Lord
Lansdowne have the Collection at prime cost, as nearly as they could find it, which was £.7,000. I

valued it at £.11,000.

How would you class the bas relief of Bacchus and Icarus in Mr. Townley’s Collection, relatively
to the frieze of the Temple of Minerva?— Inferior in sculpture; but so much better in preservation,
that I think to an individual it is of as much value as any one of the pieces of the frieze.

Are you acquainted with the Phygalian Marbles ? — Yes ; very well.

In what rank do you place them, as compared with the bas relievos of the frieze?— I think they
are, in high relief, next in merit to the high reliefs of the metopes : I never saw any thing so fine; and
they are far superior in preservation to the frieze.

Do you think them of superior value, on account of their preservation?— They are in much better
preservation ; and, taking quantity for quantity, I think they are equal to the best of the metopes ; they,
are a continued series of two stories. I think upon an average, taking piece by piece, those of Phygalia
are worth more than the metopes ; because they are in a state of preservation to be used as furniture,
which the metopes are not.

Considering the superior preservation of one to counterbalance the superior execution of the other,
you think them, foot for foot, as being of the same value? — No; I think the Phygalia are superior in
value, foot by foot.

Do you consider the best in execution of the Phygalia Marble equal to the best of the metopes?
No; but very superior to the worst of the metopes.

What you have said of their value, if they came for sale, refers to their being offered for sale to
individuals, but not as offered to Europe in general? — I supposed the market open to all Europe; to
individuals they would not sell for much in this country ; there are no collectors here.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Have those statues which have lost the surface, suffered materially as models to artists r Very
. greatly, I think.

Have you examined minutely the parts that are most perfect in the River God? Yes; the
under parts.

Do not you think that is as highly finished as any piece of sculpture you know? — It is highly
finished, but it is differently finished from the first-rate pieces; there are.no traces of the chissel upon
it; it is finished by polishing. In the Laocoon, and the things of acknowledged first-rate work,
supposed to be originals, the remains of the chissel are always visible. That is my reason for calling
these of the second-rate.

Do you not consider those parts as being a perfect imitation of nature? — Yes; I think them very
fine ; as fine as any thing in that way.

Are the marks of the chissel visible on the Venus de Medicis? — No, they are not.

Are they visible on the Apollo Belvidere? — No, they are not; I think it a copy from brass.

In the opinion you gave as to the artists who executed the works of the Parthenon, you did not
mention the name of Phidias, by whom they are most commonly supposed to have been designed?
No, I did not; and Plutarch expressly excludes him.

Does not Plutarch decidedly say, that Callicrates and Ictinus worked it? — Yes ; I understand him
to say they undertook the working of it.

Do you recollect the Greek expression, which is supposed to be used by the superior artists who
designed, and perhaps executed, such figures as the Venus and the Apollo, to express the share they
had in those compositions? — There were different expressions at different periods; the first of the time
of Phidias, cited by Cicero of Milo, a cotemporary of Phidias, wras simply the name inscribed in the
genitive case : the word afterwards used was tirom, in the imperfect tense/ which Pliny remarks they
used out of modesty, — that they were still about it. The inscription upon the Venus is in the
completely past tense; and therefore it is supposed to be a copy from a Venus of Praxiteles, which I
suppose it is.

Do you know any instance in which the share, which a great sculptor had in any of those works of
art, is expressed the word e^ya^To? — No; I believe no artist would describe it so himself; it is the
historical expression.

Though Plutarch applied the word tigyu^sTo to the share that Callicrates and Ictinus had in the
works of the Parthenon, does he not state, generally, that Phidias was employed by Pericles in the
superintendance or general design of the works of Pericles? — In the superintendance, certainly; of the
general design I know nothing.

What do you think of the value of the River God, compared with the Torso of Belvidere? — I
really can hardly speak to that ; I have not perfect recollection enough of the surface of the Torso,
and I never considered it in a pecuniary view ; I cannot speak to the execution, not having a
recollection of the surface ; but, as a part of a statue, I think the River God inferior. I cannot speak
to the value, but I should not put the River God at so much under as fifty per cent.

Do you consider the River God as considerably superior to the Theseus?— Yes, I do.

Then do you consider the Theseus as vastly inferior to the Torso of Belvidere?— I consider it
considerably inferior, not vastly inferior; it is difficult to speak to the degrees of things of that kind,
especially when the surface is so much corroded.

Do you consider the Torso of Belvidere as having any value whatsoever, but as a model or school

rrt[~~YeS’ 1 thmk h haS Value in every respect tQ coPectors as well as students.

It has no furniture value?— No; a corroded, dirty surface, people do not like.

Do you think the corrosion of the surface of the Torso of Belvidere renders it, in any considerable
degree less valuable as a model or school for artP-Ifit is corroded, it certainly does; but 1 do not
recollect whether it is or not; it is very much stained X know.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c. 41

Do you recollect in what degree the River God is corroded ? — The upper parts that have been
exposed to the weather are corroded ; the under parts are entire, and very perfect. I think it is not so
much corroded as the Theseus ; but L think there is more than half of it corroded : the back and the
side, which are very fine, are not corroded.

Have you formed any estimate of the value of these Marbles, wholly unconnected with their value
as furniture, and merely in the view of forming a national school for art? — The value I have stated,
has been entirely upon that consideration, of a school of art ; they would not sell as furniture ; they
would produce nothing at all. I think my Lord Elgin, in bringing them away, is entitled to the
gratitude of the country ; because, otherwise, they would have been all broken by the Turks, or carried
away by individuals, and dispersed in piece-meal. I think, therefore, the Government ought to make
him a remuneration beyond the amount of my estimate.

The Committee observe, that in the paper you have given in of your estimate of the value, you lead
to that value, by an enumeration of the prices of five different pieces of sculpture ; the Committee beg
to know, whether all those pieces are not fit for what may be called furniture? — Certainly.

Do you consider our own artists as proper judges of the execution of ancient works of art? — Those
I am acquainted with, Mr. Nollekens and Mr. Westmacott, are very good judges.

Do you happen to be acquainted with Mr. Flaxman? — Yes; they are all good judges.

They are competent judges? — Yes.

Have you reason to think that the art of Sculpture has advanced in this country since this
Collection has been brought into England? — No, certainly not; the best thing that has ever been
done in this country, in my judgment, is the monument of Mrs. Howard, by Mr. Nollekens, many
years ago.

Do not you conceive that the purchase of my Lord Elgin’s Collection by the Nation, for the purpose
of forming a great national school of art, wrould contribute very much eventually to the improvement o^
the arts in this country? — A general Museum of Art is very desirable, certainly. I dare say it will
contribute to the improvement of the arts ; and I think it will be a valuable addition to the Museum.

Do you think that these Statues were calculated to be seen from any particular situation ; and that
they have lost any thing by being removed? — I think they were calculated for being seen near, as
well as at a distance ; the Phygalia friezes are finished as if they were only to be seen close, and so
are many of these.

William Wilkins, Esq. called in, and Examined.

As an Architect, are you well acquainted with the architectural part of the Elgin Marbles? — Yes ; william Wilkins,
I am pretty well acquainted with them. - Es

In what class of art do you rank them? — I reckon them to be of the very highest order.

Do you consider it of importance to the Public that they should become public property? — I do
consider it of very great importance.

Are there any considerable pieces of architectural remains, which were not known before by
drawings or engravings?' — None in that Collection, I believe.

Is there not some part of the roof of the Parthenon, which was not known before? — I am not
aware that there is any thing relating to the ceiling of the Parthenon in the Collection of Lord Elgin ;
of the Temple of Theseus there is, I know.

Do you conceive the architectural remains to be of very high antiquity? — I conceive them to be
of the age of Pericles.

In what year were you at Athens? — In the summer of 1802, I believe.

Were these Marbles removed from Athens at that time? — Lord Elgin was then in the act of
removing them.

R. P. Knight,
Esq.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

William Wilkins,
Esq.

Is there a very great difference in the value, as the means of instruction, between the models and
casts of those particular parts of architecture, and the originals themselves? — I am not aware that
there are any models of them existing. I think drawings and models would convey all the information
that these fragments will.

Do you think that they lose much of their value, as models of instruction, by being removed from
the edifices to which they, originally belonged? — I do not conceive they can possibly lose any thing;
for there are so many on the spot still, that the artist who goes there will find an ample field for study.

Does each particular piece of architecture lose its value, as a model of instruction, by its being
removed from the edifice? — No, I conceive not, because the means by which it is connected with the
pieces adjoining are obvious.

Are the designs we have of the remains of Athens, particularly those published by Stuart, correct?
— Perfectly correct I know, from having measured a great many of them myself.

Do you think the temples themselves much injured, as schools for art, in consequence of what
Lord Elgin has taken from them? — Not at all.

Can you charge your recollection with the number of metopes that must have been in the original
temple? — Ninety-two, I believe.

Two in each intercolumniation ? — Precisely so.

Do you recollect how many of those were in existence and in place, at the time when you saw the
temple? — At the time I saw the temple, Lord Elgin was in the act of removing them. I do not
know how many he had taken down before I was at Athens, but I believe there might have been
about fifty-four, including those in both fronts, which are twenty-eight in number.

Prom Stuart’s Plans, it appears that sixteen intercolumniations, or thereabouts, had been totally
destroyed ? — That may be the number.

Ot course all the metopes belonging to those intercolumniations must have fallen and been
destroyed also? — Yes, certainly; at least that number.

Have you heard, or do you know from any other source, that some of the metopes had been
removed, or had been attempted to be removed, by M. de Choiseul? — It was a story very prevalent
at Athens, and. I believe the fact was so.

It follows of course, that out of the total number of ninety-two metopes, upwards of two-and-thirty
must have been already removed, and probably destroyed, before Lord Elgin commenced his operations ?

That must necessarily have been the case ; I do not know the number of intercolumniations, but
that would set the question at rest.

Did your personal observation corroborate the statement of Stuart, that even in his time the
greater part of the metopes were miserably broken on the south side, but that they were entirely
defaced on the north side and the two fronts? — If that is Stuart’s statement, I am tempted to believe
it quite correct, because I went with Stuart’s book in my hand, and some drawings of my own, and
examined the buildings from them, and I was amazingly struck with the great precision and accuracy
of that work.

The frieze which was in the walls of the cell was also destroyed by the destruction of the walls,
to a considerable extent ; do you recollect to what proportion of the whole frieze the destruction may
have taken place?— I beg to state to the Committee, that I have at this time a work in the press,
which I have delayed till this question should be set at rest ; because I did not wish that my views
should influence the disposal of the Marbles in any way; and I have only now recently put it into the
hands of the printer, in the expectation that this question would be settled before the book would
appear in print. There were nearly two hundred feet of that frieze then remaining, the whole being
about 520 feet. 6

Do not you know, or have you not heard, that between Stuart's visit and Lord Elgin’s, the French
embassy under M. de Choiseul had already removed part of the frieze?— I have heard of it, but I
have no means of ascertaining the fact.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c. 43

From the general and scrupulous accuracy of Stuart’s delineations, and particularly from the care
with which Stuart marks any degradation of the frieze which he represents, are you of opinion that
those heads which Stuart represented as entire, but which were defaced or knocked off at the time you
saw them, must have been so defaced or knocked off between Stuart’s visit and that time? — From my
general impression of the accuracy of that work, I should be tempted to believe that every act of
violence that has been inflicted on them of which he does not speak, has occurred since his visit.

Is there in Stuart any special drawing or account of any of the figures from either of the
Tympanums, which have been removed by Lord Elgin? — Stuart gives very few; I think there
are three or four in the western pediment, particularly the group called Hadrian and Sabina.

From the differences you must have observed between the state of the temple in the time of Stuart
and when you saw it, and the knowledge you acquired on the spot, of the danger to which those objects
would be subject from the wanton barbarity of the Turks, do you think that Lord Elgin may not be
considered, in removing these statues, as having rescued and preserved them from imminent destruction ?
— By the statues, is it meant the sculpture in general?

It was meant in general, but it will be satisfactory to the Committee, to have your opinion on
particular parts? — I think, that by removing the portions of the frieze, that Lord Elgin has certainly
preserved that which would otherwise have been lost ; for the frieze is much more easily accessible.
As to the metopes and the figures in the Tympanum in the pediment, I am not quite so sure ; for
although they have suffered since the time that Stuart’s representations were made, it may have been
in consequence of their being more exposed to the action of the elements ; the cornice of the building,
which has been their great protection, having fallen from time to time. At the time that Lord Elgin
was at Athens, there existed amongst the Turks certainly a great desire to deface all the sculpture
within their reach ; and I believe that that w'ould still have prevailed, if Lord Elgin’s operations in
Greece had not given them a value in the eye of the Porte : for at present, I understand, from people
lately returned from Greece, that the Turks show a greater disposition to preserve them from violence.

Do not you imagine, that by travellers going there frequently when the country was open to the
English, the same effect would have been produced as by Lord Elgin’s attention to them? — I think it
is probable that would, because the Turks have since been in a way interested in their preservation.

Do you reeollect about the time you were at Athens, that one of the only remaining heads on the
western pediment was struck off and destroyed by the Turks? — I do not remember the circumstance.

* Do you recollect that Stuart, as one of the reasons for not giving any drawings or detailed account
of the figures that remained in the eastern pediment, states, that there was no place from which he
could get an opportunity of seeing them and making the necessary observations ? — I do not remember
that Stuart makes that observation ; but I think it very possible he could not get access to them.

Lord Elgin had, when you got there, cleared away any obstructions, if there were any On that
side? — He had.

Are you of opinion, that the study of these originals would not be more useful to architects, than
drawings and casts? — I am not aware that any artist would obtain much more information than what
might be conveyed from drawings.

The Committee wish to have your general opinion as to the merit -of the sculpture of the Elgin
Marbles, compared with any other Collection in the country ? — The sculpture of the Parthenon had
very many degrees of merit; some are extremely fine, while others are very middling; those of the
Tympanum are by far the best. The next in order are the metopes ; some parts of the frieze in the
cell are extremely indifferent indeed. I think a very mistaken notion prevails, that they are the works
of Phidias, and it is that which has given them a value in the eyes of a great many people ; if you
divest them of that recommendation, I think that they lose the greater part of their charm.

Do you speak of the frieze alone now, or of the sculpture generally ?— Of the sculpture generally,
I have before stated, those of the Tympanum are far superior to the others.

William Wilkins,
Esq.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

William Wilkins,
Esq.

Is it your opinion that none of the statues are the works of Phidias? — I do not believe he ever
. worked in Marble at all. Pausanias mentions two or three instances only, and those are rather
doubtful. Phidias was called, by Aristotle, Lythourgas, in contradistinction to Polyclates, whom he
terms a maker of statues, and this because he commonly worked in bronze. If any thing could be
inferred from this distinction, it would be that Phidias worked wholly in marble, which is contrary to
the known fact. Almost all the instances recorded by Pausanias, are of statues in ivory and brass.
I think the words of Plutarch very clearly prove that Phidias had nothing at all to do with the works
of the Parthenon.

Where he mentions Callicrates and Ictinus? — Yes.

Though two other persons appear in Plutarch to have actually worked on the Parthenon, from the
general statement of Plutarch, and the common consent of all antiquity, do not you believe that
Phidias was employed in giving the designs at least of the Parthenon? — That is my firm belief.

Were not those two artists, Callicrates and Ictinus, architects? — They were; but the profession
of architect and sculptor were most commonly united.

But do not you think it more probable that Phidias, being merely a sculptor, should have super-
intended the sculpture, than the architects ? — Certainly, he superintended the whole e-f the work)
according to Plutarch ; but he states him merely to have been a director and inspector.

But whoever was the director must have made designs ? — I do not doubt he did.

Do not you think it more probable that Phidias made the designs, than Callicrates and Ictinus? —
I believe Phidias made the designs of the sculpture.

Have you ever thought of these Marbles in point of value, with reference to the Phygalia Col-
lection ? — I have not seen the Phygalia Marbles, except by drawings.

You say you rate the merit of the statues in this order : — First, the Tympanum ; secondly, the
Metopes ; and thirdly, the Frieze ; and then you add, that the frieze is of very unequal execution.
Now all the Evidence has stated, that the metopes are of very unequal execution ; but that the frieze
is of a very equal execution, and generally by artists, if not the same, at least of the same degree of
skill : the Committee, therefore, think it fair to ask you, whether or not you may not have made some
mistake between the metopes and the frieze? — When I spoke of different degrees of merit, I spoke of
the sculpture generally ; but at the same time, I think the sculpture of the frieze is not all the same :
some of it is much better. The drawing in some part of the frieze is finer than in others.

Is not there a great difference both in the drawing and execution of several of the metopes ? *—
Very great indeed. When I speak of the frieze, I allude to a part which Lord Elgin has not got ; the
western frieze is much finer and in better relief than any other part of the temple.

By better relief, do you mean higher relief? — Yes.

Do you not conceive it to be part of the great art of those sculptors, that they gave to the metopes
and those parts which were exposed to a broad and even light, a high degree of relief ; whereas to the
frieze, which was lighted from the intercolumniations in order to avoid false effect, they gave a low
degree of relief? — I think that the relief of the statues is calculated for the positions that they were
each to occupy ; but I attribute in a great measure the mediocrity of the sculpture of the frieze to the
circumstances under which they alone can be seen, they can with difficulty be seen at all.

Do you mean by mediocrity, mediocrity in merit ? — I mean in style ; it was impossible to see
them without approaching within thirty feet of the temple; and then the eye had to look up to a
height of more than forty feet, and there was no light from above.

Did not the distance at which the statues were placed in the Tympanum from the wall, add very
much to their effect by reflected light? — Very much.

Do you think the value of this Collection very considerable, as laying the foundation of a school
of the fine arts in general ?— In one point of view I think that they are valuable as architectural
sculpture ; that where a sculptor should be called on to ornament an architectural building, they would

afford a very fine school of study ; but that considering them as detached and insulated subjects, I do
not think them fit models for imitation, X mean taking the detached figures two or three together ; but
taking the whole together, the general effect is beautiful, as they add to the architecture.

Have you had an opportunity of comparing the merit of Lord Elgin’s Collection with those lately
in Rome ? — I have very lately visited Rome ; there are certainly very many things in the Collection of
the Louvre very far superior to the generality of the Elgin Marbles. I think in this kingdom we have
some much finer statues than in the Elgin Collection : I think the Venus of the Townley Collection
is one of the finest statues in the world, and the Hercules of the Lansdowne Collection is equally fine.

Speaking of them as architectural subjects, have you attended to the finish about the River God,
particularly the left leg and thigh ? — I have, and as far as my judgment goes I think it a very fine
figure, but certainly not equal to the figure in the other pediment, which is called the Theseus.

■Toot's, 7° die Martii, 1816.

HENRY BANICES, Esq. in the Chair.

Taylor Combe, Esq. called in, and Examined.

Are you well acquainted with the Medals collected by my Lord Elgin ? — I am.

Of what number do they consist? — 880 ; namely, 66 Gold, 577 Silver, and 237 Copper.

Can you ascertain the value of the Collection ? — After having carefully examined the Collection,
with a view to this particular object, I am of opinion, that it is worth the sum of 1000 guineas.

Are many of them excellent in point of workmanship ? — Several of them ; namely, one of Aetolia,
one of Carystus in Euboea, some of the Coins of Thebes, Philip, Alexander, Lysimachus, &c.

Are many of them valuable on account of their rarity? — Yes; among the gold, the following
coins may be considered as rare ; namely, a Daric, and a didrachm of Philip Aridasus with the type
of Alexander the Great, and likewise the coins of Athens, Aetolia, Argos, Carystus, Aegina, and
Miletus. Among the silver, there are many rare coins of Thebes ; also of Archelaus, Cos, Cyrene,
Phlius, Ossa, Tenedus, Philippi, Neapolis in Macedon, and a coin of Macedon, with the legend
MAKEAONXiN AETTEPAX.

Have you duplicates of many of these already in the Collection? — Yes; I suppose about one-
third of the Collection would be duplicates.

Do you know whether these are better or worse than your duplicates ? — Several are better, and
several are worse.

Are many of the gold, duplicates ? — I think a very small proportion of the gold would be
duplicates.

Which of the medals of the whole Collection do you reckon the most valuable ? — There are two
equally valuable — the gold Daric, and the gold Athenian.

At what price do you value the two ? — At 50 guineas each.

Do you consider it of consequence to the Collection now in the Museum, that this Collection should
belong to it ? — I think it would form a very valuable addition to the Museum Collection.

Would these medals complete the present Collection in any one class ? — Certainly not ; I believe
there is no Collection in the world complete in any one class.

What proportion of these Medals will fill up the chasms in the Collection already deposited in the
Museum ? — About two-thirds of them.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Is the present Collection of Greek Medals in the Museum, a valuable Collection r -
valuable one.

In what rank does it stand with the other known Collections ? — It is inferior to the French
Collection, and inferior, I believe, to the Vienna Collection ; it is inferior also to the Collection of Mi .
Payne Knight ; it is, however, superior to the Collection of Dr. William Hunter, now at Glasgow, in
the coins of cities, but inferior to it in the coins of kings.

Veneris, 8° die Martii, 1816.
HENRY BANKES, Esq. in the Chair .

The

Earl of Aberdeen.

The Earl of Aberdeen attending, by permission of the House of Lords, was Examined.

In what year was your Lordship at Athens ? — In 1 803.

Were any part of the Marbles now in the Elgin Collection, removed at that time? — '"Yes, a
considerable part.

Was the work of removal going on? — It was.

Did that appear to excite any sensation among the magistrates or the inhabitants . of Athens ? —
Not much that I perceived.

In what state was the Western pediment at that time?' — I believe those two figures (the second
and third figures from the left in Nointel’s drawing) were remaining ; nothing else.

Was the head upon the second figure? — It was when I arrived at Athens, and was destroyed
while I was there ; I believe in the hope of selling it to some traveller, it had been knocked off, and
falling on the pavement was broken to pieces.

Had your Lordship any opportunity of observing the head before it was knocked off? — I saw it
frequently before it was knocked off.

Did it appear to your Lordship to resemble any particular head you had seen in antiquity? — It
has been called the statue of Hadrian ; but the head was so mutilated and corroded by time, that I
should have thought it impossible to trace any resemblance to any head whatever.

Did the work of that head or figure appear different from the general character of the work of the
Western pediment? — Not the least.

In what class of art does your Lordship place the best of the Marbles that have been brought
home by Lord Elgin ? — In the highest class of art. By this term, however, I beg to be understood
only as expressing a very high degree of excellence, and not as, in strict language, comparing them
with the most perfect specimens of the art on the Continent, or even in this Country.

Do you consider them of the antiquity that is usually attributed to them? — Unquestionably.

Does your Lordship consider the metopes as of the same age? — I see no reason for doubting it ;
indeed, I should say they must be of the same age, for the stones on which they are sculptured are let
into the building, and must have been so let in before the roof was put on.

Does your Lordship imagine, that if those works had been left in their old places, they would
have been much longer preserved ? — I think they were in a state of great danger, and exposed to in-
creasing danger, from the multitude of travellers that of late years resorted to that country.

Were the travellers in the habit of procuring fragments from the works of art?-- Some travellers
were in that habit ; but the natives had a notion that all travellers were desirous of it, and therefore
they destroyed them accordingly.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

Did they destroy them for the purpose of selling them to the travellers ? — I presume so.

Does your Lordship consider the draped female figures as being in the first class of art? — I do ;
keeping in view the explanation which I have already given.

Did your Lordship bring home any Marbles? — Some inscriptions; some fragments ; not of these.

From other parts of Greece? — Yes.

Did your Lordship obtain any particular permission to have any casts taken, or drawings made,
from any part of Athens? — No.

The figure that was called Hadrian, was then not the centre figure of the pediment?' — Cer-
tainly not.

Is your Lordship well acquainted with the bas reliefs of Mr. Townlev’s Collection? — Yes, I am.

Does your Lordship think they bear any comparison to those of my Lord Elgin ? — Their preser*
vation being infinitely better, they may be considered in some respects as more valuable ; but, as works
of art, I consider the best of Lord Elgin’s to be quite equal, or superior.

Has your Lordship any notion of the money value of such a Collection as this ? — That is certainly
a question to which it is very difficult to give an answer which will be at all satisfactory : undoubtedly
I have formed in my own mind a general opinion of their value, and if the Committee please, I will
state it, and the grounds upon which it is formed. This Collection is very extensive, and, I think,
may be generally divided into two classes : the first comprises sculpture from different parts of Greece,
but particularly from the Temple of the Parthenon at Athens ; this I consider to be extremely valuable>
not only from the excellence of the work, but as belonging to the most celebrated Temple in Greece,
and as affording undoubted specimens of the state of art at the time of its greatest perfection in that
country. The other class comprises a great collection of inscriptions from different parts of Greece,
which are extremely interesting from their high antiquity, and peculiarities of language ; they afford
historical documents of the progress and changes of the Greek language, which I think it would be
difficult to find elsewhere : this, it is obvious, to private individuals would be comparatively of little
value, but in a national point of view, especially where attention is paid to the study of the Greek
language, I conceive them to be of considerable importance. There are also other objects of more or
less value ; and I would particularly mention the architectural fragments, which are members of some
of the most perfect buildings in Greece. On the whole, therefore, from these considerations, if I name
the sum of five-and thirty-thousand pounds, I feel confident that the late Government of France would
willingly have given a greater amount ; and I am not at all certain that some of the Governments of
Europe, notwithstanding the present state of their finances, might not be disposed to exceed that also.

Has your Lordship any reason to know that the late Government of France had it at all in con-
templation to offer a sum? — It is from no positive knowledge of any such offer, buf from the general
impression and opinion among persons in Paris who were listened to, that I conceive it probable.

Does your Lordship happen to know whether there are any princes in Europe who are now
collecting and will be likely to purchase such a Collection, if offered to them ? — I think it extremely
probable the King of Bavaria might, but I have no knowledge of that ; and very possibly the
Emperor of Russia ; indeed the King of Prussia has bought a large collection of pictures : but this is
mere conjecture.

Your Lordship has no doubt of the importance it would be to this Country, as the foundation of a
national school of art, as well as from the other considerations you have mentioned, to purchase this
Collection? — I have certainly a very high opinion of this Collection, both with respect to the art, and
as interesting objects of antiquity.

In your Lordship’s opinion, could any private traveller have had opportunities of accomplishing
the removal of these Marbles ; or does your Lordship imagine it would have been necessary to take\
advantage of the authority and influence a public situation gives? — I do not think a private individual

The

Earl of Aberdeen.

48 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

could have accomplished the removal of the remains which Lord Elgin obtained. I will state a fact
concerning myself : when I was at Constantinople, I happened on going there to have some interest
in a question that had been a good deal discussed at the time, concerning the credibility of Homer’s
relation of the Siege of Troy ; and I thought a very natural method of procuring some sort of illustra-
tion of that, would be to open some of the barrows and mounds which remained in that country, and
which are appropriated to different heroes. I accordingly obtained permission at Constantinople to
open such of those tumuli as I thought fit; and I went to the Plain of Troy in company with the
Captain Pacha of the time, who gave me every sort of assistance in his power ; but the natives opposed
such obstacles, that I was unable to effect it : Therefore I conceive it certainly must have required
very considerable influence not only with the Government, but in the country, to be able to carry it
into execution.

Does not your Lordship think there would be considerable difference in point of difficulty, in
removing any remains from a building in existence, and excavating and removing things under ground ?
— Very possibly ; but it is very difficult to say what might be the conduct of the Turkish Government;
it seems to be governed entirely by caprice ; at one time there might be no difficulty, and at other times
it might be very difficult.

Your Lordship is not aware of any permission given to individual travellers, of the same nature as
that given to Lord Elgin? — No, I am not; but again I would beg to be understood, as not saying
it would be refused ; I obtained the permission I asked for from the Government without any dif-
ficulty.

That was a permission to excavate? — Yes.

In point of fact, your Lordship obtained all the facility from the Turkish Government which you
wished for? — I certainly did.

Can your Lordship form any judgment whether a great expense was not necessarily incurred by-
Lord Elgin, in these operations? — -Very great indeed.

Not only with regard to conducting the operations, but towards conciliating the good-will of the
local authorities ? — I dare say it might have been necessary, in obtaining any such permission, to con-
ciliate those authorities by means of presents ; but the difficulty of removing the objects themselves was
very great indeed. I think w'hen I was Athens, there wfas but one cart in the whole city, and that did
not appear calculated to bear any great weight.

Can your Lordship form any estimate whatever of the probable degree of expense that Lord Elgin
must have incurred there? — Indeed I cannot ; but it must have been very great.

Does your Lordship conceive that the value of £. 35,000, which you are inclined to suggest, would
cover all the expenses that may probably have arisen from this removal? — I have no knowledge what-
ever of the expenses incurred ; they must have been very great, perhaps to that amount.

Does your Lordship happen to recollect that a ship belonging to my Lord Elgin, containing a
considerable portion of those Marbles, was lost off the island of Cerigo, and afterwards weighed ? —
Yes.

Does your Lordship include in the sum of five-and-thirty thousand pounds the Medals? — No, I
do not ; I include nothing but the Marbles, the Inscriptions, and Sculpture.

Does your Lordship include the casts and moulds? — The estimate I have given is a very general
one; it never had occurred to me to separate the Casts and the Marbles; certainly I did not consider
the Casts as of any great value.

Y our LordshiP h»s alluded to the circumstance of the head of the figure called Hadrian having
been broken off during the time your Lordship was at Athens, is your Lordship enabled to give an
opinion as to bow the Committee might estimate the service done to art, or the disservice, by the
removal of the other fragments?- I think the danger the Marbles at Athens were in, arose not so

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

much from the destruction by the Turks, as from the frequency of travellers going to that country,
and from the continued endeavours of the French Government to obtain possession of them ; and
therefore I think that at no great distance of time they probably might have been removed from Athens;
and in that view, I certainly have always been very well pleased to see them here.

Was your Lordship apprised of the steps taken by Count de Choiseul for their removal ? — I
frequently heard of it.

In fact, not one of the figures on either of the pediments was perfect? — No, I believe not ; they
had suffered very much from the Turks at one time ; but that violence had subsided completely ;
the Turks never injured them, they never thought of them.

Had Lord Elgin purchased the two houses under the Eastern pediment, at the time your Lord-
ship was there? — He had ; the temple was cleared in consequence.

It was in those houses, and in the excavations under them, that he found some considerable part of
the Marbles ? — I believe so.

Has your Lordship any opinion whether these sculptures are the work of Phidias ? — I have
no idea that any of them are the works of Phidias ; but, from the testimony of ancient authors, > there
can be no doubt that the whole was executed under his immediate direction.

From the great difference in merit between some of these Marbles, is it not probable that they were
executed by different artists? — Very probably ; but in a temple of that description, magnificent, and
superintended by Phidias, I have no doubt the artists were good.

Does not your Lordship consider it highly probable that Phidias may himself not only have
designed, but even touched some of the heads, or the naked figures, that were in the Tympanum of the
Parthenon ? — I should think probably not : I have said, I have no doubt the whole was executed under
his immediate direction.

From the nature of the work, your Lordship cannot judge whether that was the case or not ? —
The surface of most of the sculptures is so corroded, it is difficult to see the hand of a master upon it.

Is your Lordship of opinion that the designs of these pieces of sculpture were probably furnished by
Phidias himself? — I think very probably, but of that I can be no better judge than the Committee ; it
is from ancient testimony I judge.

Is there any work so incontestably the work of Phidias, with which your Lordship can compare
them, that your Lordship can form any opinion upon the subject? — I believe there is no work existing
incontestably of Phidias ; one of the statues on the Monte Cavallo, at Rome, has been called the work
of Phidias.

Has your Lordship ever seen the Phygalian Marbles ? — I have.

How do you estimate the Value of those Marbles, in comparison, with Lord Elgin’s ? — I consider
those Marbles to be of the same age, and of the same scale of excellence : in many respects they are
better preserved ; but, on the other hand, they are in other respects not so interesting as Lord Elgin’s.

In what respect does your Lordship consider them as inferior to Lord Elgin’s? — In the first place,
although I do not believe that any of these Marbles were touched by Phidias, I consider they receive
an additional interest from being executed immediately under his direction. The Marbles of Phygaiia
came from a temple built by the same architect who was the builder of the Parthenon, but of the
sculpture nothing is said.

By what architect was the temple of Phygaiia built ? — By Ictinus.

Does not your Lordship think that the manual execution of the Phygalian Marbles is extremely
inferior to those of the Parthenon ? — The relief is much bolder, and perhaps the workmanship may be
inferior to the best of Lord Elgin’s Marbles.

Does your Lordship consider that the superior preservation in which they are, at all compensates
for the inferiority of execution? — It undoubtedly adds very greatly to their value.

Has your Lordship formed any relative idea of the value of the two Collections ? — I think there

The

Earl of Aberdeen.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

The

of Aberdeen.

. S. Morritt,
Esq.

is no comparison ; that Lord Elgin’s is greatly superior. I consider the Marbles of Phygalia to be
worth about the price given for them ; and I have already stated what I considered to be the value of
Lord Elgin’s.

Though the Marbles’ on the Parthenon and on the temple at Phygalia may have been designed
by the same artist, does not your Lordship think the execution of the Marbles of the Parthenon are
so different, not to say superior, to those of Phygalia, as to render it very unlikely that they were
worked by the same hand ? — I am not at all sure they were designed by the same artist : the same
architect built both temples, but I will not answer for the sculpture having beer* designed by the same
person. In fact, I think they are not very different ; I think the style of work is very much the same ;
the difference arises from the higher relief of the Phygalian Marbles.

Is the relief of the Phygalian Marbles as high as the metopes of the Parthenon? — Very nearly ;
but their preservation is infinitely superior.

Does your Lordship think that the proportions of the figures in the Phygalian Marbles are short
and coarse in comparison to the best of the Marbles of the Parthenon ? — I think generally the style of
work is the same.

Does your Lordship observe any difference in the style of drapery, or whether there was the same
simplicity? — I do not think the simplicity of drapery is remarkable in Lord Elgin’s Marbles ; on the
contrary, I have been surprised at the complicated drapery, if I may say so, that there is in both.

Does your Lordship recollect to have read, that Callicrates was employed on any other works but
t;he Parthenon and the Long Wall ? — I recollect no other.

John Bacon Saw re y Morritt, Esq. a Member of the House, Examined.

In what year were you at Athens ? — In the spring of 1795.

In what state was the Western pediment of the Parthenon at that time? — I recollect the three
left hand figures, but I do not recollect that so many of the heads remained as appear in this drawing ;
of the others, some of the trunks did, the centres certainly did not.

In what year did you leave Athens ? — I staid at Athens nearly three months.

Did you observe the head of the second figure in the Western pediment? — The head was on at
that time, I recollect.

Did it appear to you resembling any character that you knew, by reference to coins or statues ? —
It had been said to resemble Hadrian ; the head was not very perfect, and I did not think the resem-
blance so strong as to enable me to decide that it was so ; the antiquarians and the few people I saw
there that knew any thing at all about it, had adopted that as a system probably from books which had
been published.

Do you imagine, that there is any ground for supposing the heads commonly called HJadrian and
Sabina, had been added to figures which were more ancient? — I did not observe any appearance of
h; but at the period that I was at Athens, my own knowledge of the subject w'as not sufficiently ma-
tured to make my observation of the least consequence ; I did not know enough of the style at that
period to form an adequate judgment.

Was there in the Turkish Government and people a desire of preserving these remains, or die!
they seem careless about their being broken to pieces aud pulled down?— When I was there, the
Turkish Government totally neglected the care of such Marbles as were loose or thrown down, but
certainly inteifered to prevent any Marbles from being removed which were standing and in their
places.

Was one of the pieces of the frie?e removed by Monsieur de Choiseul, the French ambassador,
prior to your being there? — I really do not know whether it was or not; it was not done while I was
there, that J recollect; it was so generally understood that the Government wished to prevent any

OJN THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

thing from being removed, that the local governors of Athens, who were assailable by bribery, endea- J. B. S. Morritt,

voured to conduct the business as secretly as they could, whenever any thing was to be removed, E^'

even of the Marbles which were down. I myself negotiated with the commander of the citadel for the
removal of one or two pieces of the frieze, that were thrown down and neglected among rubbish :
he was very willing to do it for a sum of money, if he could do it without the knowledge of any
person whatever. This negotiation coming however to the ear of the French agent, who wanted it for
himself, he prevented my getting it, by threatening the magistrate to make it known to his superiors ;
in consequence of which it remained where it was.

You understood there was always a great difference between the Marbles already throwm down,
and those that were standing in their places? — I had endeavoured to include in the bargain one of
the metopes which had not fallen, but which was so loose that it appeared on the point of coming
down. I found him much more scrupulous on this point than with respect to those which had fallen ;
and I think that he would not on any consideration have allowed those that were secure to be removed.

I do not know how far the Government might have relaxed afterwards ; but I met with the same
difficulty at Ephesus, and at Amyclas, where I wished to procure the Marbles, Lord Aberdeen has
since successfully brought over ; they all were looked upon as the property of the State. The answer
given to me was, that they should be extremely glad to sell them ; and the magistrate told me, he
valued the money more than the Marbles, but that it was as much as his head was worth.

Do you think the Greeks were anxious that those Marbles should not be removed from Athens ? —

They were decidedly and strongly desirous that they should not be removed.

Are you of opinion that nothing but the influence of a public character could have obtained the
permission to remove these? — The different views of an arbitrary Government in Turkey change so
from year to year, that I can speak to it only for the time I was there. When I was there in 1796, 1
certainly conceived nothing but the influence of a public character could obtain that permission.

Do you think that even the influence of a public character could have obtained it at that time? —

It is impossible, so little as I know of the politics of the Court of Turkey, to answer that question.

Did you try at Constantinople to procure permission to remove any Marbles ? — I did not.

Were you acquainted with any circumstances attending either the acquisitions of Monsieur
Choiseul’s Marbles, or their removal from Greece ? — Monsieur Fauvel, who has since been the
French Consul, I believe, and who for some time had been employed in collecting for Monsieur
Choiseul, informed me that much influence had been used by Choiseul, in order to procure the
Collection he made ; and a part of that Collection, which was still in Turkey, and some of it in Fauvel’s
own hands, was detained by him, and by the French Ambassador for the Republic, as the property of
the Great Nation, as he called it ; Monsieur Choiseul having at that time become a candidate for
employment under the then existing French Government.

It was considered that those Marbles which had been obtained by Monsieur Choiseul in his public
character, had been obtained in a manner which constituted them the property of the French Govern-
ment? — I believe they were at that time considered as the property of the French Government, under
the emigration of Monsieur Choiseul, and the confiscation of his property by the Government.

Are you acquainted with the Elgin Marbles? — I am.

In what class of art do you esteem them? — I esteem them, many of them, as the purest
specimens of the finest age of Greece.

Do you consider it of consequence to the welfare of art in this Country, that this Collection should
become the property of the Public ? — In my own judgment, I should say it was of the first importance
to the progress of art.

Have you ever looked at this Collection with a view to its money value ? — I cannot say that
I can form any judgment upon that subject ; so much of the value of works of art is ideal. I
consider it as unique, certainly, in point of design, apd as an undoubted specimen of the best age

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

of Greece; but the state of mutilation in which it is left, and, above all, the corrosion of much
of the surface by the weather, must greatly reduce its value.

Do you consider that those works were in continual danger of destruction, if they had
been permitted to remain in their old places? — From the manner of the people at the time I
was there, I should say that the pieces that were thrown down were liable to injury ; but that
of those which remain standing, and in their places, I saw no reason whatever, except the state
of decay in which time had placed them, to anticipate any destruction whatever.

Did the Turks ever lire at the figures of the Tympanum? — Certainly not as a practice, nor
did I ever hear of such an instance.

Of the twenty figures, some of them quite perfect, which appear in Nointel’s drawing, do you
recollect that more than three or four remained when you saw them, and that none of those three
or four were perfect? — I recollect that none of the figures were perfect; I speak from imperfect
recollection ; but I should say that seven or eight remained. I think that part of the car and horse
remained, but a very imperfect part; and part of several of the others, I think six or seven, much
mutilated.

J. N. Tazahcrley,
Esq.

‘I. <\

John Nicholas Eazakeriey, Esq. a Member of the Committee , Examined.

In what year were you at Athens? — In 1810 and 1811.

From your observation of the state in which the remaining monuments at Athens now are,
have you reason to believe that those which were removed by Lord Elgin, would have been sub-
jected to great risk and loss if that operation had not been performed ? — My impression certainly
is, that all the Marbles at Athens were exposed to very considerable danger, from the avidity of
travellers to acquire particular objects, and the bribery which was employed with magistrates on
the spot to obtain them. I should add, that at this moment the Turks have an interest to preserve
the monuments which remain upon the citadel at Athens, because they obtain money by exhibiting
them. It is very obvious, from the dilapidations which took place in former years, the same causes
continuing in a great degree, still to operate, that the Marbles were exposed to great risk.

Does your recollection of the state of the temple agree in general with the evidence which
Mr. Wilkins gave? — It does.

Had you an opportunity of seeing the iEgina Marbles? — I saw them in 1811.

Will you have the goodness to give the Committee your opinion of those Marbles? — The
iEgina Marbles I always understood, from persons much more competent to give an opinion than
myself, as pieces of sculpture, w^ere rather curious from the age of which they were specimens,
than valuable from any particular beauty ; they were in considerable preservation : And there was
one particularity in them which has seldom been remarked in other monuments of antiquity ;
which was, that it goes to corroborate an idea that has been entertained, that the ancients painted
their statues, and employed gilding on parts of the face; in the eyes of some of them there are
remains of painting and gilding, which much added to their value as matters of curiosity.

In your judgment then, as specimens or models of the Fine Arts, the iEgina Marbles have
very little value from their beauty? — Very little from their beauty, but very great from their
antiquity and their rarity.

Of what age were they?— They were of the age commonly called that of Etruscan Art.

You were at Athens at the time the iEgina Marbles w:ere removed ? — No ; I was there
immediately prior to their removal.

Do you know whether the proprietors of those Marbles experienced great difficulty in removing
them out of Greece? Certainly, very great; the iEgina Marbles in 1811 were deposited in a
building almost under ground, and considered there in some degree in secret ; they were not generally

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

shown, and it was understood that the Turkish Government had opposed impediments to their J.N. Tazakerley,

removal ; and Mr. Cockerell called upon me to consult with the English Consul upon the means _

of enabling him to remove them from Athens to Zante. The English Consul, wi.3n we consulted
him on the subject, told me that he felt great embarrassment on the subject, and that they must
be removed either in secret or by bribery : by the Turkish Government I mean the local Government.

How much prior to the age of Pericles do you conceive the date of the Aigina Marbles to be ?

I do not know precisely what number of years may have intervened.

Is there much of that style in Greece, called Etruscan ? I recollect hearing of one or two
specimens in the Morea.

Is there any thing in that style at Athens? — No; I think not.

Do you know what value was put upon the iEgina Marbles? Mr. Galley Knight and myself
were anxious to purchase those Marbles for the British Museum ; and we requested Mr. Lusieri to
put some value upon them; at his suggestion we offered the sum of ,£.2,000; the Marbles belonging
to two English proprietors, and to two Germans ; the English proprietors consenting to relinquish
their share of the profits, in hopes that the Marbles should come to England : so that the offer implied
that the Marbles were worth .£.4,000. I think it justice to those two English gentlemen, who made
this liberal offer, to mention their names ; Mr. Cockerell and Mr. Foster.

Luna, 11° die Martii, 1816.
ITENRY BANKES, Esq. in the Chair.

Alexander Day, Esq. called in, and Examined.

ARE you acquainted with the Elgin Collection of Marbles? — Yes; I have had the pleasure to Alexander Day t

visit them often.

In what class of art do you rank the best of these Marbles ? — I rank them in the First Class, as I
know of nothing superior to them.

Which pieces among the Marbles do you rank as in the highest class? — The Theseus and
the Ilissus.

How do you rank these, as compared with the figures on the Monte Cavallo? — I think their
merit seems to correspond, as it they were the production of the same master ; but I make a
distinction between the two figures on Monte Cavallo, ranking that which tis called the work of
Phidias as the highest.

Is that the figure now in the King’s Mews? — Yes.

Do the horses on the Monte Cavallo seem to be. of the same age and class as the Centaurs
in the metopes? — Yes, I should think they do.

As compared with the Apollo Belvidere, the Torso, and the Laocoon, in what rank do you
estimate the Theseus and the Ilissus? — I should judge them superior; particularly were they less
mutilated, a better judgment could be formed.

In what particulars do you judge them to be superior? — T judge, from seeing those paits
which are best preserved, that the style of the sculpture is superior to either the Apollo, the
Torso, or the Laocoon.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Do you mean by superior in sculpture, superior in execution, or superior in design? — I mean
with respect to the style and character of the workmanship.

Do you mean as they conform more to general nature, and give a more exact imitation of it?

— They conform more to what the artists call Sublimated Nature; not common nature, but nature
in its highest perfection.

Have you been a dealer in Marbles yourself? — No, I have not; I never bought an entire
statue, but any fragments that came in my way, merely for my own study and amusement.

Have you ever looked at Lord Elgin’s Collection, with a view of estimating its money price ?

— No, never.

Have you purchased pictures of great known merit, for sale?- — I have.

And you have met with a ready sale? — Yes, I have.

Have you long resided in Rome? — Between 30 and 40 years in Italy, but mostly in Rome.

Have you directed your attention, in the greater part of that time, to the Fine Arts in general ? —
Entirely.

Though not a dealer in Marbles, have you not been, in a considerable degree, conversant with
transactions of that nature during your residence there? — Yes, naturally.

Can you form any opinion what price might have been asked for the Theseus at Rome, supposing
it to have been dug up at Hadrian’s Villa, for instance ? — In answer to that question, I can only say
in what price it may be esteemed, because no purchaser would be allowed to take such an example
of sculpture out of Rome ; but I cannot take upon myself to put that estimation upon so fine an
object of , art ; it is not capable of pecuniary estimation, having no intrinsic value, but depending
on taste.

Are you not the proprietor of the cast of one of the figures from the Monte Cavallo, which
is now exhibiting in the Mews ? — I am.

Can you state to the Committee the prices at which any remarkable and well known statue has
been sold, or offered for sale? — Yes; the statue known by the name of the Barbarini' Faun, has
lately been sold for the price of about .£.3000 sterling.

When was it sold? — About two years ago, to the agent of the Prince Royal of Bavaria: it was
not known, at the time of the purchase, for whom it was bought.

Were there any competitors for the purchase? — Yes; but as it was declared that the statue
should never go out of Rome, then it was relinquished by all except the agent of the Prince Royal of
Bavaria, who accepted it : after this the statue was arrested in the street, when they were removing it,
and is at present deposited in the Museum at Rome.

Have you any acquaintance with any of the persons who were competitors for the purchase?

— Yes, Torlonia, the banker at Rome, was one.

Do you know, if permission could have been obtained for the removal, whether as much or more
would have been given by any of the competitors?— I can only say, that the price which was paid was
considered very inadequate to its value.

How do you estimate the value of that statue, as compared with any of the statues in the Elgin
Collection? — I consider the Elgin Marbles as of a higher class.

How do you estimate it with the Theseus? — I consider it as very inferior.

Would the different state of the preservation compensate for that difference, in your opinion?

— The Faun itself is not perfect ; the legs of it are restored in stucco ; the hands also; the head and
torso are tolerably perfect. The statue was restored in my time, by Pacchetti.

As compared with the Ilissus, how do you estimate the value of the Faun ? — I consider the
Ilissus to be the superior statue by far.

Is not part of the Ilissus in very perfect preservation ?— Yes, the back particularly.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, 8cc.

Mercurii , 13° die Martii , 1816.
HENRY BANKES, Esq. in the Chair.

Rev. Dr. Phi lit Hunt, LL. D. called in, and Examined.

IN what year were you at Constantinople, and in what character? — I went out with Lord Elgin,
as his chaplain, and occasionally acting as his secretary. '

Did you ever see any of the written permissions which were granted to him for removing the
Marbles from the Temple of Minerva? — Yes ; I found on my first visit to Athens that the fermauns
which had beea granted to Lord Elgin’s artists were not sufficiently extensive to attain the objects
they had in view, that their operations were frequently interrupted by the Disdar or military governor
of the Citadel, and by his Janizaries, and other considerable obstacles thrown in their way, by some-
times refusing them admission and destroying their scaffolding : on my return, therefore, to Constan-
tinople, in 1801, I advised Lord Elgin to apply to the Porte for a fermaun embracing the particular
objects I pointed out to him ; and as I had been before deceived with respect to the pretended
contents of a fermaun, I begged that this might be accompanied by a literal translation : the fermaun
was sent with a translation, and that translation I now possess. It is left at Bedford, and I have no
means of directing any person to obtain it : I would have brought it if I had been aware I should
have been summoned by this Committee before I left Bedford.

What was the substance of that fermaun? — It began by stating, that it was well known to the
Sublime Porte that foreigners of rank, particularly English noblemen and gentlemen, were very anxious
to visit and examine the works of ancient art in Greece, particularly the temples of the Idols ; that
the Porte 'had always gladly gratified that wish ; and that, in order to show their particular respect to
the Ambassador of Great Britain, the august Ally of the Porte, with whom they were now, and had
long been, in the strictest alliance, they gave to his Excellency, and to his Secretary, and the Artists
employed by him, the most extensive permission to view, draw, and model, the ancient temples of the
Idols, and the sculptures upon them, and to make excavations, and to take away any stones tha*
might appear interesting to them.

Was this fermaun granted after the conquest of Egypt by the British arms? — It was after their
first successes.

Was the obstruction, which you mentioned in your former answer, before the success of the British
arms? — It continued to be shown till I arrived with the second fermaun.

Was the tenor of the second fermaun so full and explicit as to convey upon the face of it a right
to displace and take away whatever the artists might take a fancy to? — Not whatever the artists
might take a fancy to; but when the original was read to the Yaivode of Athens, he seemed disposed
to gratify any wish of mine writh respect to the pursuits of Lord Elgin s artists ; in consequence of
which I asked him permission to detach from the Parthenon the most perfect, and, as it appeared to
me, the most beautiful Metope : I obtained that permission, and acted upon it immediately : I had
one carefully packed and put on board a Ragusan ship, which was under my orders ; from which it
was transferred to a frigate, and sent to England. The facility with which this had been obtained,
induced Lord Elgin to apply for permission to lower other groupes of sculpture from the Parthenon?

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Rev.

Dr. P. Hunt.

which he did to a considerable extent, not only on the Parthenon, but on other edifices in the
Acropolis.

Was this under the authority of the same fermaun ? — It was.’

Was there any difficulty in persuading the Vaivode to give this interpretation to the fermaun? — •
Not a great deal of difficulty.

Was there any sum of money given to the Vaivode, anterior to his interpretation of the fermaun ?

* — Presents were given to him at the time of presenting the fermaun ; but I am not aware of any
money being given. ,

Do you recollect what was the essential difference of the two fermauns? — I never saw any
translation of the first, but found it had been inefficient.

Have you any idea of the difficulty and expense of obtaining the fermauns from the Porte ? — I
am not aware of difficulty or expense being incurred at Constantinople in obtaining that fermaun.

Did you ever hear of any negotiations with the servants of the Sultana Validk? — I recollect
none; .but that negotiation might have taken place without my knowledge; and, if it did, it must
have been through the agency of the dragoman of the British embassy.

Have you any information to give the Committee with regard to the expense incurred in the way
of bribes, either in obtaining the fermaun at Constantinople, or on acting upon it at Athens? — Nothing
sufficiently precise, to enable me even to conjecture the amount.

Did Lord Elgin’s local expenses at Athens pass through your hands ? — No; I merely gave the
presents to the local authorities on my audience.

Can you give any information to the Committee respecting the subsequent expenses incurred by
Lord. Elgin in the operation of removing the Marbles, and bringing them to England?— No,
I cannot.

Was there any interference used by any persons to prevent the removal of these Marbles? — Not
that I recollect; as the permission to lower the Metope was given me by the Vaivode, who has the
highest authority at Athens.

Was any opposition shown by any class of the natives? — None.

Did you continue at Athens after the removal of the first Metope ? — I remained there a few weeks,
and revisited Athens subsequently.

uia Eora Elgin experience any difficulty in removing his Marbles from Turkey?— Interruptions
were given by some of the Janizaries residing in the Acropolis, from fear of their houses being injured
by the operations of his Lordship s artists ; but those houses were bought by his Lordship and pulled
down, and excavations made where they had stood : no subsequent opposition was given on the part
of the Turkish Government, and I found the common inhabitants of Athens always very ready to act
as labourers in removing the sculptures.

Do you conceive that a fermaun of such extensive powers would have been granted by the
Turkish Government at any other period, to any British subject ? — Certainly not; and if it
had not been at so favourable a moment, I should not have thought of proposing many of the
requests it contained.

Do you think that any British subject, not in the situation of ambassador, would have been able
to obtain from the Turkish Government a fermaun of such extensive powers?— Certainly not.

, y0ur °pin!°n’ was this Pe™ission given to Lord Elgin entirely in consequence of the situation
he held as British ambassador?— I am inclined, to think such a permission would not have been asked
for by any person not an ambassador of a highly favoured ally, nor granted to any other individual.

Does it appear to you, that the permission under which Lord Elgin acted, was granted as a private
favour to himself, or as a tribute of respect and gratitude to the British nation?— I cannot presume to
explain the motives of the Porte, but I think it was influenced by great personal respect to the

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

ambassador, as well as gratitude for the successful efforts of our army in Egypt : but I always thought
the objects so to be obtained, were to be the property of Lord Elgin.

Did you see any particular fermaun granting authority to purchase and pull down a house? — No;
I am confident no such permission was in the fermaun I took to Athens, though it contained general
permission to excavate near the temples.

In what year did you return to Athens? — I was there at different times, and sailed from thence,
with the ambassador, at the termination of the embassy, having procured for him, at different visits,
most of the inscriptions, and many detached pieces of sculpture.

When you finally left Athens, were all the Marbles now in Lord Elgin’s Collection removed or
lowered from their original places? — I believe most of them were.

Were all the large figures lowered? — They had been, during my absence from Athens.

Was one of the Caryatides removed at that time? — I think it was.

Do you know whether the removal of that piece of sculpture created any discontent or sensation
among the people of Athens? — I had no personal knowledge that it did; no such discontent was ever
expressed to me.

Do you imagine that the fermaun gave a direct permission to remove figures and pieces of
sculpture from the walls of temples, or that that must have been a matter of private arrangement with
the local authorities of Athens? — That was the interpretation which the Vaivode of Athens was
induced to allow it to bear.

In consequence of what was the Vaivode induced to give it this interpretation ? — With respect
to the first metope, it was to gratify what he conceived to be the favourable wishes of the Turkish
Government towards Lord Elgin, and which induced him rather to extend than contract the precise
permissions of the fermaun.

Can you form any idea of the value of the presents which you gave to the Vaivode? — I
cannot now ; they consisted of brilliant cut glass lustres, fire-arms, and other articles of English
manufacture.

Can you form any estimate of the expense incurred by Lord Elgin in forming this Collection of
Marbles, and bringing them to England? — I have no data on which to form any accurate idea
of the expense of procuring them and putting them on board ship ; but it must have been very
considerable, both in procuring them, and the great local difficulties he met with in taking them
to the Piraeus.

Do you know the weekly or monthly expenses incurred on Lord Elgin’s account during your stay
at Athens ? — I do not ; but it must have been very considerable, owing to the expense of the
salaries and maintenance of his numerous artists, and the continued presents that were given to
the Turkish officers at Athens, and the numerous labourers employed in transporting the heavy
masses of Marble.

Do you know the weekly sums paid in salaries to the artists or the labourers employed by Lord
Elgin ? — I do not ; I believe all pecuniary disbursements on his Lordship’s account at Athens were
made by Signior Lusieri, his principal artist.

Can you conjecture whether, upon the whole, Lord Elgin’s expenses are likely to have
exceeded the sum of £. 30,000 ? — I have no means of forming any opinion upon that
subject : his Lordship was indefatigable in his researches, not only at Athens and its
neighbourhood, but throughout the Morea and Proper Greece, and the shores of Asia
Minor, in endeavouring to procure whatever might tend to the improvement of the arts,
particularly in sculpture, architecture, and medals, as well as ancient inscriptions, tending
to elucidate the progress of the Greek language from the B srpotpvfov mode of writing,
through all its changes to the latest periods of Greece : he also procured specimens

Rev.

Dr P. fft/Tit.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

Rev. of the different orders of architecture, such as capitals and bases, &c. from the earliest to
Dr. P. Hunt. ^ styles.

QUESTIONS sent to the President of the Royal Academy , his Health not permitting
him to attend the Committee ; with his Answers thereto.

1 . ARE you well acquainted with the Elgin Collection ? — I am, having drawn the most
distinguished of them, the size of the original Marbles.

2. In what class of art do you rank the best of these Marbles? — In the first of dignified art,
brought out of nature upon unerring truths, and not on mechanical principles, to form systematic
characters and systematic art.

3. Which, among the Marbles, do you consider as the most excellent?— The Theseus, the Uissus,
the breast and shoulders of the Neptune, and the horse’s head.

4. In what class do you rank the draped female figures? — In the first class of grandeur.

5. Do you consider the draped female figures as of high antiquity ? — At the same time of the
Theseus ; and the equestrian groups are of the same period.

6. In what class do you rank the metopes? — In the grand and simple style of composition.

7. Do they appear to you the work of the same artists? — One mind pervades the whole, but not
one hand has executed them.

8. In what class do you rank the frieze of the procession? — The equestrian groups in this
frieze or procession are without example, in the energies of the horses, the grace and beauty
of the youths who sit upon them, and the life which is to be found in all. The whole
does not appear to be the efforts of the human hand, but those of some magic power, which
brought the marble into life.

9. Does that frieze appear to you superior or inferior in excellence to the metopes? — The
metopes are superior in their finishing, and many of them are more appropriate to the studies
of sculpture, than the less polished groups in the frieze ; but the energy of the latter is withou
an example in art, excepting the two works by Raphael, in the Vatican, viz. the Expulsion
of Heliodorus, and the invading Army of Rome, under King Attila. These two works of art
embrace the same soul, as they sprung from the Marbles now under the consideration of the
Committee, and which were communicated to Raphael by his agents sent to Athens, and other
parts of the Grecian islands.

10. Does it appear, in general, to be the work of the same artists? — In this frieze I perceive one
mind and one hand, in all that animated nature of which the groups are composed.

11. Does that frieze appear to be works of the same period with the metopes and the larger
statues ? — The same hand which produced this frieze, was capable of producing the metopes and the
large figures.

12. As compared with the Apollo Belvidere, the Torso of the Belvidere, and the Laocoon, how
do you estimate the Theseus or Hercules, and the River God or Ilissus ? — The Apollo of the
Belvidere, the Torso, and the Laocoon, are systematic art; the Theseus and the Ilissus stand
supreme in art.

13. Do you consider it of importance to promoting the study and knowledge of the Fine Arts in
Great Britain, that this Collection should become public property? — I think them of the highest
importance in art that ever presented itself in this country, not only for instruction in professional
studies, but also to inform the public mind in what is dignified in art.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

14. As connected with the study ©f painting, do you consider that great improvement of our Benjamin West,
British artists may be expected from this acquisition? — It is in these Marbles which is seen the

source from whence they grew, and that source is now as open as when they were raised into being,
because it came from nature, which is eternal ; and as Raphael was benefited by them, so may our
British artists.

15. Can you form any estimate of the money value of this Collection; and if so, what is that
value, and upon what data do you form your estimate ? — To such w:orks as these, which have
appeared but once in the world, I cannot set any pecuniary value, in competition with the mental
powers which are to be seen in those Marbles.

16. In what consists the characteristic distinction between the style of the best of the Marbles
from the Temple of Minerva, and that of the Laocoon, Apollo Belvidere, and other works of
excellence which you have seen? — The same answer as that of No. 12.

17- Does the close imitation of nature, (in your opinion,) which is observable in the statues of the
Theseus, Ilissus, and some of the best metopes, take from, or add to their excellence ? — The close
imitation of nature visible in these Figures, adds an excellence to them which words are incapable of
describing, but sensibility feels, and adds to their excellence.

18. Have you ever drawn from these Marbles; and are you sensible of any improvement from
having studied them? — I have drawn from and studied the figures and groups of men and horses,
which I found most excellent in those Marbles. Whether in studying them, I have added any
celebrity to the productions of my pencil, I leave the Select Committee to determine, on viewing my
two Works, subsequent to those studies, viz. Christ in the Temple, and Christ Rejected, which are
before the Public.

19. Are not some of the metopes as highly finished as the Theseus or Ilissus? — They are, in
many of their bodies, and also in some of the bodies of the Centaurs.

20. Have you seen and examined Mr. Knight’s Collection of Bronzes ; and in what does their
character materially differ from the best of Lord Elgin’s Marbles ? — I have seen them, and they are
of the first class, as bronzes. They, as most bronzes, are of systematic art ; but there are some in
that Collection of pure art ; in particular, I remember a young Apollo.

21. Have you ever seen sculpture that was, in your opinion, so incontestably the work of the
greatest artists as the Theseus, Ilissus, and some of the metopes, or so valuable as models for artists,
notwithstanding the partial loss of surface and mutilation? — I have never seen any works of sculpture,
which prove themselves to be so decidedly the works of the greatest masters, as must be seen in the
Figures mentioned ; and also the same powers are visible in the Barbarini Sleeping Faun.

22 — 27. Have you seen, and examined, the Phygalian Marbles at the Museum? — I have, and
find groups and figures among them deserving of praise, but greatly deficient in the just proportion of
heads, legs, and arms, and the draperies much confused in their folds ; though when taken in the whole,
they are an acquisition in art to this country, although inferior to those which are here from the
Temple of Minerva.

28, 29. How should you class the Theseus or IliSsus, compared with the Barbarini Faun ?

Should you consider either of the above statues, in their present state, as equal or superior in money
value to the Barbarini Faun ? — These three figures are in the highest style of sculptured art, and the
very able restoration of the feet, and other parts of the Barbarini Faun, renders it more agreeable to
the view as a whole, but not more valuable or superior in style of art, or equal to the figures of Theseus,
or the Ilissus, in the truth of nature, particularly in the knees, shoulders and backs, where time has
most injured them. Respecting the money value of these three figures, I suppose they are nearly on
a balance, in their mutilated state ; but in the refinement of what is transcendent in art, as in the
Theseus and the Ilissus, I cannot put any nominal value.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE, &c.

30. Can you compare, in money value, Lord Elgin’s Marbles, or any part of them, with the money
value of the Phygalian, or the Townley Collection? — I judge of the Elgin Marbles, from their purity
and pre-eminence in art over all others I have ever seen, and from their truth and intellectual power ;
and I give them the preference to the Phygalian and Townley Collection, most of which is sys-
tematic art.

If the above Answers to the Questions, with which I have been honoured by the Select Committee
of the House of Commons, tend in any way to assist them in their inquiries respecting the merits of
the Elgin Marbles, I shall feel myself highly gratified.

With the greatest respect, I have the honour to be,

The Committee's most obedient humble Servant,

BENJAMIN WEST.

APPENDIX

No. % — LETTER from Lord Elgin to the Right Honourable N. Vansittart ; accompanying
his Petition to the House of Commons.

SIR, London, 14th February, 1816.

In pursuance of the advice you were good enough to give me at our last interview, I have the
honour of transmitting to you a copy of the Petition which you last year presented to the House of Commons,
in my name, for the disposal of my Collection of Athenian Sculpture, and other objects of Grecian Antiquity,
to the Public. l

Since that period, the relations between this Country and the Continent have afforded a fresh accession of
means to the most distinguished and learned foreigners to bear their testimony of admiration to the real
merit of my Marbles; which, I may venture to say, have essentially gained in the public opinion, even on a
comparison with the chef-d’oeuvres of ancient art, which, till lately, adorned the Gallery of the Louvre.

Within this period also, the fate of that Gallery, and the influence of the dispersion of it, have eminently
exemplified, in the face of Europe, the importance of collections of this nature, in a national point of view.

I should have been most highly gratified in presenting my Collection (the fruits of many years anxiety and
trouble) gratuitously to my Country, could I have done so with justice to my family. Situated, however, as I
am, I can only transfer it to the Public for such a consideration as the House of Commons may judge proper
to fix.

In proceeding to the appreciation of it, it will readily be admitted, under all the peculiarities of the case,
that I can be possessed of no standard which could authorize me to name a price. Whereas if (as I have
presumed to suggest in my Petition) a Committee of the House of Commons would enter upon the examina-
tion of the most competent evidence which can be adduced, they would, upon that evidence, be able to
determine the intrinsic value to the Country of what I offer; and would, I have no doubt, arbitrate satisfactorily
as well as fairly, between the Public and me. It is therefore not my wish to name any particular price,
nor to enter into any statement of my own views, with respect to the value of my Collection. I leave this
question entirely in the hands of the Committee of the House of Commons, to whom I shall be happy to
afford all the information in my power. _ „

In conclusion, I beg leave to express my hope and expectation, founded on the concurring testimonies of
the first Authorities in this and other countries of Europe, that the fullest investigation which can be bestowed
on this subject will prove, in the most unexceptionable manner, that I have been so fortunate as to confer a
real benefit on my Country; and that the Collection with which I enrich it, will be eminently useful to the
progress of the fine Arts, not only in Great Britain, but throughout Europe.

The Right Honourable N. Vansittart, I have the honour, &c. &c.

fyc.Sfc.fyc. (Signed) ELGIN.

No. 3.— MEMORANDUM, as to Lord Elgin’s exclusive Right of Property in the Collection of

Marbles.

February, 18 } 6.

1 By reference to the Journals of the House of Commons, it does not appear, that, on the occasion of the
transfer of Sir William Hamilton’s Collection to the Public, any idea was entertained calling in question his

exclusive property in what he offered to Parliament. T , ,

In point of fact, the Royal Family of Naples took a great interest in Sir William Hamilton s researches,
aided him materially ; and, it was understood, contributed considerably to his Collection.

It is also known that, subsequently, Sir William Hamilton formed other Collections, and disposed of these

to individual collectors. . m . ..it- i t> i .•

Q. M. le Comte de Choiseul Gouffier, during his embassy in Turkey, previous to tlie French Revolution,
entered upon the same plan which Lord Elgin has prosecuted ; employing a number of artists at his own
expense, and making every preparation for moulding, and removing sculpture, &c. from Athens. Ihe
Revolutionary Government seized some of the acquisitions which he had sent to France; but Buonaparte, in
the short peace, allowed a corvette to bripg away, on M. de Choiseul’s account, what still remained o his
property at Athens. And when, in 1803, this vessel was captured by a frigate in Lord Nelson s squadron,
liis Lordship, on M. de Choiseul’s splipitatioD, considered the cargo as private property, and directed it to be
preserved for him accordingly.

APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE

3. Sir Robert Ainslie, Lord Elgin’s predecessor in Turke}', made considerable Collections there, his
property in which was nbver disputed.

4. The greater part of Lord Elgin’s Collection was obtained during his embassy. But from the
termination of it in January 1803 till the present time, his operations have continued uninterruptedly —
(excepting only during the interval of war with Turkey.) Accordingly, a very valuable addition of statuary,
&c. (acquired within that period) was joined to the Collection in 1812.

5. A public despatch from Lord Elgin, dated January 13th, 1803, conveying a request on the subject of
his salary, contains the following passage: “The private expense I have incurred to the extent of many
(e thousand pounds, in improving the advantages before me, towards procuring a knowledge of the Fine Arts
(( ln Greece, and rescuing some of their remains from ruin ; and the loss of a valuable vessel of mine, solely
‘ employed in that service, would make any defalcation of the appointments affixed to my rank, a matter of

serious inconvenience to me.”

6. On the other hand, Government not only never interfered in any way, in Lord Elgin’s operations in
Greece, but let it be distinctly understood, before his leaving England, that they could not authorize any
expenditure, on an undertaking attended with so much uncertainty and risk; it being beyond doubt that,
had they given instructions, or even any formal encouragement, they would, with the advantages, have been
liable also in any loss.

7. In fact, no instance is known of the Public claiming an interest in what foreign Ministers, Governors,
aval or Military Commanders, &c. &c. may at any time have acquired by their own means, or received

from foreign Sovereigns to whom thej' were accredited.

letter from the late Mr. Townley to Mr. Harrison the architect, dated in the year 1803, will prove
T Viti c. ear understanding of the Public in general, and of the Dilettanti Society in particular, was, that
oid Elgin was carrying on his pursuits at his own private risk, and without any assistance whatever from
overnment. A copy of this letter is hereunto annexed, enclosed in one from Mr. Harrison to Lord Elgin.

No. 4. — MEMORANDUM as to the Delay in transferring Lord Elgin’s Collection to the Public.

February, 1816.

As it may appear to require some explanation, why this Collection is only now transferred to the Public,
alter a considerable part of it has been so many years in the country; Lord Elgin begs leave to state :

lhat on being arrested in France, and becoming apprehensive that his detention might be much pro-
tracted, he directed the Collection to be made over to Government unconditionally. But his family (with
whom alone he was then permitted to correspond) from being wholly unacquainted with the object, delayed

complying with this direction till the year 1806, when he reached England. ' ^

Within ten days after his arrival, while none of the packages were yet opened, though some were partially
broken ; a gentleman of the very greatest weight in this country on all matters of taste and ancient art,
pubhely declared in Lord Elgin s presence, and supported his opinion by allusions to classical authority :

„ ,, * ,at J hltllas dld not, work 111 marble: that the sculptures which decorated the pediments of the
„ ^arthenon were executed, at soonest, in the time of Hadrian ; and could not rank otherwise than as

The respectable quarter whence this opinion originated, imposed upon Lord Elgin the indispensable
obligation of laying his Collection open to public inspection, before he could feel justified in bringing it
forward as an object of nationa importance. Some time, however, after he had so exposed it to vie#, a
volume pubhshed in 1809, by the Dilettanti Society of London, denominated “Specimens of Ancient
Sculpture selected from different Collections in Great Britain,” not only did not advert to any of Lord
Elgin s statues, or include any of them m its selection of specimens, but contained the following very
striking passage: Of Phidias s style of composition, the /riffles and metopes of the temple of Minerva at

, B,ht "8;hUb lshed by iMr' SuUart’ an,d Sln,ce bro“Sht t0 England, may afford us competent information.
‘ nroLhl bSe are merely architectural sculptures, executed from his designs, and under his directions,

■ E r t by ",°lkni™ scarcely ranked among artists, and meant to be seen at the heighth of more than
, dell T I® tl!ey(.Can but i‘ttle *,ght “P™ the m°re important details of his art. From the’
‘ offhe shld!m?dLe- ‘f 'ef “ i’e fneses’ they- apPT t0 have ,been '"'tended to produce an effect like that
, ' “e simplest kind of mono-chromatic paintings when seen from their proper point of sight, which effect
must have been extremely light and elegant. The relief in the metopes is much higher® so as to exhibit

Ire sfioSdifferir, y ,Ch°“Plele’ and tbe dela,ls are,m0,e accurately and more elaborately made out ; but they
are so different in their degrees of merit, as to be evidently ’the works of many different persons some of
whom wcnild not have been entitled to the rank of artists in a much less cultivated and fastidious a«e ”

Ie°e «™„W»ln Mr-Perc™lin 18 P™P°-d to purchase this Collection not £
rice upon a previous examination into its mentis anrl volno k.-.i k.. Jr . „ »

sum ior it.

T Pr‘ca “P011 a previous examination into its merits and value, but by offering at once a specific
nlrf.-Efg? decbned proposal as one that, under the above impressions, would be in the highest degree
38 ^ 35 7h°lly inEder,el ia compensation of the ontlafoccasS

exceUenc^of this ^ u 1 ntn re ^ nd iit * ” rlfer!nce t0 (uhat h.as rinue been established beyond all doubt) the
xcellence of this sculpture, and its authenticity as the work of the ablest artists of the age of Pericles.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

No. 5. — Copy of a LETTER addressed by Lord Elgin to the Right Honourable Charles Long,
in 1811; — with a Postscript added February 1816.

SIRj 6, Park Lane, May 6th, 1811.

In requesting you to be so obliging as to offer to Parliament, in my name, a proposal for
constituting my Athenian Collection national property, I feel desirous of putting you as fully as possible in
possession of my ideas connected with this transfer.

The Memorandum recently published, on the subject of iny pursuits in Greece (of which I did myself the
honour of sending you a copy), and the inspection of my Museum, will sufficiently explain that my under-
taking could have had no other object than that of endeavouring (though it never before had been found
practicable) to secure, as far as it could yet be traced, a full and accurate knowledge of the School of
Phidias, while he had the direction of the works of architecture and sculpture during the most brilliant period
of the history of Athens.

That in the hopes, but before the existence of any favourable circumstances to which alone, however, I
could look forward for a probability of success', I engaged, at my own risk, such persons as the artists in Eng-
land instructed me were necessary for that object.

And that, by being thus prepared, I was enabled to complete the plan in all its details, and to an extent
far beyond what could have been foreseen.

The article (Beaux-Arts) in the Moniteur of the 20th ultimo (which, giving an account of a translation
now making in Paris of Stuart’s Athens, calls the ornaments belonging to the Parthenon, the only undoubted
works of Phidias in existence,) will, on the other hand, show in what estimation the Collection I have brought
to England is held in France; and afford a ground of judging, far less exceptionably than on any assurances
from me, whether, during my detention of three years there, it must not have been constantly in my option
to have made the most advantageous terms for ceding them to the French Government. I state this, in proof
that pecuniary emolument was not in my contemplation ; and that it has ever been my steady purpose to
render these acquisitions conducive to the advantage of my Country.

In this view, as soon as they could be at all arranged, 1 afforded every facility and encouragement for the
inspection of them, in order that the Public might form their opinion without bias or restraint; and I
accordingly have the satisfaction of receiving continually, from every artist without exception, from men of
taste and men of literature, the most enthusiastic testimonies of the admiration which they feel in the
contemplation of my Drawings, my Casts, Marbles, Inscriptions, and lesser Sculptures, representing various
interesting scenes in private life. They trace in these, hitherto unknown works, the same superiority of
intellect and genius, which characterizes all other productions of the best times of Greece ; and they look to
the establishment of such a school as this assemblage would furnish for the study of art and the formation of
taste, as the means of giving to this Country those rational advantages, the importance of which has been of
late so much brought into evidence, by the many valuable Collections of ancient art so studiously concentrated
in Paris.

Such impressions, I have the strongest reason for believing, would have been found to be the sentiments
of the persons of the description I allude to, who might have been called upon to report on the value of this
Collection as a national acquisition. And while they would have awarded a fair reimbursement of my
expenses, which the state of my family and my affairs would not justify me in foregoing ; they would at the
same time have stamped the transaction as wholly differing from a pecuniary bargain, and would have pro-
nounced on the service I had been the means of conferring on the country, in a way to have presented a
powerful recommendation and claim in my favour, for some mark of Royal approbation.

Such were my sentiments on the subject in question, when I was lately called to London, at the desire of
the Speaker, for the purpose of concerting the mode of transferring this Collection to the Public. And I
found the Speaker decidedly of opinion, that a statement of my expenses, with the interest upon them,
should form the basis of the transaction ; and that, beyond this, Parliament would take under consideration,
as a separate subject of remuneration, the merit attending the procuring and offering these objects to the
Public.

But a delay arose most unexpectedly, from an idea being entertained, that, as I, at the time, held a
diplomatic appointment, I had not the full and uncontrolled right over my acquisitions : an idea, which
would have given to Government a claim upon any acquisition, which not only ministers but governors
abroad, naval and military commanders, and every person employed, &c. &c. might have opportunities of
obtaining at their own risk and outlay and trouble, or be permitted to receive from Foreign Sovereigns.
Independently, however, of plain reason and universal practice ; and of the instances of Sir William
Hamilton, who sold part of his Collections to Parliament, and part to individuals and foreigners; and of my
predecessor Sir Robert Ainslie, whose entire property in his valuable Collections has never been interfered
with ; it is now known, that I engaged in the enterprise under review, only because the British Government
would not have been authorized to undertake any thing of so doubtful an issue.

When this difficulty appeared to be removed, and the Speaker still adhered to the opinion he had
before recommended as to the mode of proceeding, I could no longer hesitate in acquiescing in his advice ;
and I herewith transmit to you accordingly as ample a view of my outlay as the materials still in my possession
enable me to furnish, of a transaction so peculiar in itself, and differing entirely from the circumstances
attending every other Collection. Here the objects were not purchased, or got for fixed prices. They were
not selected by the taste of an individual; nor were they, generally speaking, the results of accidental dis-
covery from excavation. But, in the face of difficulties till then found insurmountable, a plan was under-

APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE

taken for securing one great series, the success of which depended upon unwearied patience, abundance of
means, and the most prompt and uncalculating decision in the use of them. YV ith all this, it must be recol-
lected, the expenses are those of a person acting under no responsibility, with all the keenness and impe-
tuosity which may be supposed to have animated the attempt to rescue inestimable treasures from ob lvion
and destruction.

1st. The Drawings and Casts.

2nd. The Sculptures and Inscriptions now in England.

1st. The Drawings and Casts.

In appreciating the expenses of this article, which constituted the whole of the original plan, it must be
borne in mind that the instructions I acted upon were traced by artists in England, who, on a full investiga-
tion of the existing works relating to Athens, pointed out in what respects information was further wanting
from thence. Indeed, a few years before, M. de Choiseu! Goqffier had taken to Turkey nearly the like
establishment of draughtsmen, on a similar attempt, which, however, failed. Besides, the obstacles, the
interruptions and discouragements, created by the caprice and prejudices of the Turks, even under the most
favourable circumstances, are such that any undertaking in that country, when connected with their establish
ments, houses, &c. and requiring time, is placed in no parallel whatever with similar works carried on else-
where. In fact, my artists were several months at Athens without being able to enter the Acropolis, unless
on paying fees nearly amounting to 5l. sterling each visit; nor, till long after, were they permitted to erect
scaffoldings.

The expense of the six artists I had, of whom four were without doubt the most eminent of their day in
Italy, necessarily included their salary, board, accommodations, and attendance, and literally all their sup-
plies, as well as the cost of all the materials they used ; their scaffoldings, packing-cases, Sac. & c. These
charges may be supposed to have amounted, upon an average, as near as can be calculated, to 400/. for each,
per annum. (The professional men in England, who had been applied to for this expedition, declined
leaving their occupations in London, under towards 700/. per annum for salary alone, besides having all their
expenses paid, and retaining a part of their works.)

The six artists remained together on this undertaking three years and a half ; which,

at 400/. each per annum, would amount to £ 8,400

N. B. — One continued some time longer in finishing the picturesque tour in Greece.

One came to England, where he remained two years, for the purpose of engraving his
own drawings, an intention which my detention in France defeated, incurring a further

expense of .......... 800

The conveyance of these artists from Rome to Constantinople, thence to Athens, and

their journies in general, may have been about - - 1,500

~£. 10,700

This sum may be considered as forming the cost of the Casts, Drawings, and Measurements ; though the
same persons, and in many respects the same expenses, were equally necessary, and contributed towards the
other parts of the Collection.

twi

2. — The Sculptures and Inscriptions , and Vases, now in England.

In alluding to some of the articles which more exclusively compose the cost attending the Marbles and
Inscriptions, it is difficult, even in the most confidential communications, to enter into explanations.
The case is, that the ministers of the Porte were prevailed upon, after much trouble and patient solicitation,
to grant to me an authority to excavate and remove what I might discover, as well as to draw and model.
It was an authority differing from those granted to other English gentlemen, then travelling in Turkey, only
in the degree which the extent of the means I employed made necessary. But the plain import of such a
permission in Turkey, is nothing more, than that it affords an introduction, by means of which secret nego-
tiations may be carried on with such persons in office or in power, as have some superintendence, or immediate
concern, with the objects in question. Upon such persons, it is equally undeniable, that no influence can
possibly be efficient, from a Christian, excepting only weight of gold; and the amount of this is, in all cases,
pioportioned to the rank of the parties, the sacrifice to be made, and the eagerness shown for the acquisition.
At the period under review 1 held the dignity of ambassador : I had to transact with the highest personages in
the state. The objects I requested were — leave to occupy situations about the ruins, commanding the
interior of Turkish houses: to remove blocks forming parts of their fortifications; aud, inscriptions, &c.
occasionally built up in their mosques. And my perseverance under constant difficulties and disappoint-
ments, sufficiently showed to them the importance attached to my enterprise.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

The above Expenses, and the numbers of Workmen employed, maybe calculated at

It may easily be conceived what extent of manual labour was required in a country, in which the habits
are those of the most obstinate listlessness and indolence: which is wholly unprovided with wheel-carriages,
or mechanical instruments : when great masses of ruins were to be removed in search of hidden pieces of
Sculpture; large blocks of Marble to be lowered from great heights ; and so many immense weights convey-
ed to a distance of above four miles, along a track which had barely the appearance of a road.

The removal of the Cases from Athens to England ; for, though I received much very friendly assistance"}
in this respect, from officers commanding King’s ships, yet I employed two vessels of my own on that ser-f

vice, and several country ships : - I

The Expenses at Malta, where the cases were generally placed in deposit '

Commission and Agency ; which in all instances, especially when out of the ordinary line of business, are

very considerable in Turkey -

Interest on Money borrowed, which is, legally, at 12 per cent, and often much more...

A great variety of minor Expenses, inseparable from so vast an undertaking - —

This outlay was at a time when not more than 12 or 13 piastres could be got in exchange for the pound
sterling.

The charges thus stated for the Artists, the obtaining and removing the Collection, are

There was, besides the loss of my vessel (the Mentor), an English copper-bottomed yacht, which was cast
away off Cerigo, with no other cargo on board than some of the sculptures. The price and charges on this
vessel (which, from the nature of her voyage, could not be insured in Turkey) and the operations, which con-
tinued three years, in recovering the Marbles, cannot be stated under £. 5, 000 -

This expenditure having been incurred between the years 1799 and 1803, leaves a claim of interest from

that time *

There has been since, the charge of landing this immense number of heavy Cases in various ports of
England, transferring them to London, and placing them at the Duke of Richmond’s, in Privy Gardens;
removing them afterwards three times ; erecting convenient and sufficient buildings where to place the
Marbles; arranging the casts; attendance on the Collection, &c. &c. The expense of this part of the
transaction must have been fully <£.6,000

public inspection in my house in Park-Lane, and in Burlington-House, from the year 1807 to 1812; consist-
ing of all the large statues (excepting the Sternum of the colossal figure of Neptune, the group of two horses’
heads, and the forehead of Minerva); eleven of the metopes; a large proportion, but not the best preserved
groups of the frieze; various minor pieces of sculpture; all the moulds and casts; some specimens of
architecture; all the drawings ; and original inscriptions.

Towards the end of 1812, about eighty additional cases of architecture and sculpture reached England ;
having been collected subsequently to my departure from Turkey, and now forming part of my Collection in
Burlington-House.

To these are now added a Collection of Medals.

1 beg leave generally to observe, that though I had not regulated my expenses or my outlay, under any
expectation of their being ever inquired into, still I brought with me from Athens an accurate and detailed
journal of the daily expenditure there, down to my departure in 1803, made out by a gentleman of the
strictest honour and regularity, who had the direction of all my operations, and in whom I have placed the
utmost confidence. This has been lost, probably when, on my arrest as prisoner of war in France, I was
under the necessity of burning my papers. But I have recently received the continuation of that journal
from January 1803 to the end of 1814. together with the account current of my agent, an eminent merchant, at
Malta, from October 1807 to May 18 LI ; which documents enable me to specify the leading articles of outlay
incurred since my leaving Turkey.

The Journal itself amounts to ------ Ps. 112,170

Besides, the Expenses at Malta before October 1807, and after May 1811.

Interest of Money.

Presents sent from England, &c. &c.

But the principal importance of these vouchers is, to show the real nature of the expenses, to which, in
point of fact, this enterprise subjected me; a subject, of which nothing but an acquaintance with the habits
and practices in Turkey, and the peculiar difficulties, necessities, and charges attending this undertaking,

«£. 15,000.

,£.2,500.

£■

£•

£.

£. 28,200.

£. 5,000.

To the Right Hon. Charles Long,
Sfc. Sfc- Sfc,.

Sir,

I have the honour to be, &c. & c. &c.

(Signed) ELGIN.

London, February 2 9th, 1816.

The above Statement refers altogether to the great body of the Collection, such as it had been laid open to

which at 16 Piastres, the average rate of Exchange, is equal to A

M. Lusieri’s salary from 1803 to 1816

His personal loss, during his flight from Athens - :-

And that part of the Account Current of the Agent at Malta, not included in

.<£.7,010 12 6

2,800 — —
200

M. Lusieri’s Journal

.. 2,400

£. 12,410 12 6

APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE

could possibly afford any notion. These documents show, that, even when I employed only one, instead of
six artists, and my endeavours and their results were reduced out of all proportion with my former efforts ;
yet that during so much of this period as M. Lusieri was at Athens,

1. The cost of manual labour, was - Ps.S7,464

2. . _D°_ -of materials, &c. &c - 23,805

3. Presents, found necessary for the local authorities, in Athens alone 21,902

That interest on money borrowed there, was as high as 15 and 20 per cent.

And the agency at Malta, after commission and brokerage on drafts being charged, was (6,000 on 33,663)
equal to 17| per cent.

I beg once more to repeat, that I do not offer this view of my expenses as a criterion of the intrinsic value
of my Collection. I ever have been persuaded that, injustice to the Public, that should be calculated on
other grounds. But it is, I trust, sufficient to prove, that in amassing these remains of antiquity for the
benefit of my Country, and in rescuing them from the imminent and unavoidable destruction with which they
were threatened, had they been left many years longer the prey of mischievous Turks, who mutilated them
for wanton amusement, or for the purpose of selling them piecemeal to occasional travellers; I have been
actuated by no motives of private emolument; nor deterred from doing what I felt to be a substantial good,
by considerations of personal risk, or the fear of calumnious misrepresentations.

ELGIN.

To Henry Bankes, Esq.

Chamnan of the Committee,
fyc. S)C. tyc.

No. 6. — LETTER from Lord Elgin to Henry Bankes, Esq.

Sir, London, 13th March, 1816.

As I have been given to understand that some Members of the Committee have expressed a wish fox-
more detailed information with respect to my expenses in Turkey, connected with my Collection of Athenian
Sculpture, &c. I have thought it might be convenient for them to be in possession of the following considera-
tions, arising out of the Italian Journal which I left with the Committee the second time I had the honour of
attending them ; 1 hope that they will assist the Committee in forming an accurate notion of the nature of
the exertions and expenses which necessarily attended the prosecution of an undertaking, which, 1 believe,
knows no parallel; and at the same time, to appreciate the extent of what must have been expended, prior
to the first date occurring in that document.

But, before I enter upon this comparison, I beg to advert to tbe expenses incurred in England since the
Marbles began to arrive, fourteen years ago, and the loss of my ship the Mentor; two items in my expenditure,
not referred to in the journal.

1. The expense of landing and warehousing the cases in England ; collecting them first at the Duchess of
Portland’s, in Privy Gardens ; then transporting them to the Duke of Richmond’s ; afterwards to my house in
Park-Lane : and finally to Burlington House (in each of which two last places I had to erect suitable buildings
lor the purpose of arranging and exhibiting the Statues and Bas-reliefs;) the figure-maker’s labour in putting
together the moulds made at Athens, a work of great nicety, and which took up nearly a whole year; at-
tendance for the protection of the Collection, during ten years ; and various incidental charges. All these
sources of expense cannot, in my opinion, be calculated at a less sum than srtt thousand, pounds.

2. The loss of the Mentor, and the expense of weighing up her cargo, consisting of large cases of Marble,
being parts of the frieze and metopes, sunk in ten fathoms water (an operation which was not completed till
the third year after the shipwreck), forms my second item. Before the employment of the divers, who were
ultimately successful, three unavailing attempts had been made to weigh up the ship bodily. All the cases
were finally recovered, and none of the contents in any way damaged. They were forwarded successively by
thd consul at Cerigo, some of them to Smyrna, and some to Malta, and from thence to England. This ope-
xation, with the purchase of the Mentor, and her necessary expense, I have valued at five thousand pounds.

v ^e regular accounts sent home by M. Lusieri in 1815, comprise, first, the manual labour

he employed, amounting to Ps.37 464

2. The materials he purchased for carrying on his operations 23 805

S. Presents to the Authorities at Athens 21,902

4. Lusieri’s board 24 000

5. Interest on money borrowed by him, &c VoOO

During these expenses, which were incurred between the commencement of 1803 and the

end of 1814, excepting the interval of war, M. Lusieri was alone at Athens, and procured what
has been added to the Collection since 1811: they form a total of 112,000 piastres, equal, at 16

p5 to the pound sterling, to £ 7 000

1 q which are added the salary to the present period ... 2 800

His losses, when driven by the war from Athens . ^200

And the sum of «. 2 400

In all £. 12,400

being what Messrs Hayes of Malta pass in account, beyond what went through Lusieri’s hands.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

I value, therefore, the three articles, — Expenses in England, the loss of the Mentor,

and the works since the beginning of 1803, — at ,£.6,000

5,000

12,000

-£•25,000

4. Now with respect to the works prior to 1803, I have not the same data to proceed upon. The account
furnished me by M. Lusieri, on my leaving Athens, has been mislaid, or destroyed in France. 1 must there-
fore arrive at an approximation by analogy.

The mass of work done, and the difficulties surmounted prior to 1S03, may be described thus : — The
acquisition of all the large statues of the pediments; of eleven out of the fourteen metopes; of nearly forty
out of fifty-six or fifty-eight pieces of the frieze ; the colossal statue of Bacchus ; the bas-reliefs of the Temple
of Victory ; many smaller fragments of sculpture; the greatest and most interesting part of the inscriptions;
many of the architectural specimens, particularly those of the Ionic order; all the casts ; all the drawings ;
all the medals; the procuring the artists from Rome; their conveyance by way of Messina, Malta, Girgenti,
to Constantinople, and thence to Athens ; their salaries, board, and absolutely every expense they incurred
from the winter of 1799 to the middle of 180S ; their conveyance home; the maintenance of one of them
(Ittar) one year longer at Malta in finishing his sketches; and of another (the Calmonk) for two years
longer in England, for the purpose of his drawings; the' purchase and construction of the materials required
for the operations of the artists; the original breaking ground of the whole transaction, both in Constanti-
nople and in Greece ; the purchase of houses, and removal of large masses of ruins for the recovery of buried
sculpture ; the manual labour at all times of a great number of men, and very frequently of hundreds at a
time, in transporting great weights from Athens to the sea ; occasional presents to sailors engaged to assist on
the embarkation ; the conveyance of a part of the Collection to Alexandria or to Malta, in private vessels
hired for the purpose; the exorbitant demands in these countries for interest, agency, and commission; and
the whole performed under the disadvantage of a very inferior rate of exchange, from eleven to thirteen
piastres only being then procured for the pound sterling ; whereas the calculation subsequent to 1803 is founded
upon the pound sterling producing sixteen piastres.

Under the foregoing considerations, 1 am confident thatl should not materially err, if I were to state
my expenses for the Collection, prior to 1803, at three times the amount of those incurred subsequent to
that date. This calculation (even without taking into account the difference of 25 per cent on the exchange
in favour of the latter period) would raise the expenditure, prior to 1803, to ^.36,000; whereas in my letter to 1
Mr. C. Long, I have rated it, on other grounds, only at £.28,000*. To which, and to the £.5,000 on the i
loss of the Mentor, I have added fourteen years’ interest.

To recapitulate the above, I calculate,

j^.6,000 Expenses in England.

5,000 Loss of the Mentor, and recovery of its cargo.

12.000 Expenses, as per Account, since January 1803.

28.000 Ditto, prior to that period.

23,240 Interest on jg.33,000.

But, I beg leave once more to repeat, that T do not, and never have recommended my expenses as a
criterion of the value of my Collection to the Public.

I have the honour to be, with great respect, Sir,

Your obedient humble Servant,

Henry Bankes, Esq. ELGIN.

Chairman of the Committee ,

4fC. fyc. fy c.

No. 7. — Copy of a LETTER from Charles Townley, Esq. to J. Harrison, Esq. on the
Subject of Lord Elgin’s Marbles.

Dear Sir, London, 8th February, 1803.

I feel myself exceedingly obliged to you, and most highly gratified, by your kind com-
munication to me of Lord Elgin’s most laudable exertions towards collecting either original Marbles, or
Drawings or Casts, of the most valiujble monuments of sculpture or architecture in Greece.

I have lost no opportunity of informing persons of taste and judgment in the Fine Arts, of the interesting
operations which Lord Elgin is now so eagerly carrying on. Mis Lordship’s zeal is most highly approved
and admired, and every hope and wish is entertained for his final success. But our Government is univer-
sally blamed for not contributing their political influence, as well as pecuniary aid, towards these operations,
jfor the advancement of the Fine Arts in this country.

\ ou appear to decline Lord Elgin’s invitation to supply Signor Lusieri with more documents and

* Bting the expense of the Artists, which comprises the whole of the original undertaking - ••• Ps. 139,000
That of obtaining and removing the Marbles Ps. 224,900

APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE

information, relative to his further pursuits and researches in Greece. But it is in contemplation with a fen
Members of the Dilettanti Society, to whom I have communicated Lord Elgin’s letter, to make a handsome
remittance to Signor Lusieri, and to engage him to make some researches, and execute some plans and
drawings of monuments, which shall be indicated to him. ,

The meeting of the Society will be on Sunday next. Should any determinations be entered into, worthy
of being communicated to you, you shall know them : at the same time let me entreat you to put down on
paper any hints you can suggest, relative to objects in Greece, that are particularly requisite to e
investigated. . . , . .

My health is still in a very weak state. I will conclude this sheet by repeating my thanks for y°ur ,f
communication, and expressing my hopes of receiving from you your thoughts upon the chief objects in
Greece, that yet remain, and ought to be investigated and drawn by Lusieri.

I remain, dear Sir,

Your most faithful and obedient Servant,

C. TOWNLEY.

No. 8. — Translation of a LETTER from the Cavalier Canova to the Earl of Elgin.

My Lord, London, 10 th Nov . 1815.

Permit me to express the sense of the great gratification which I have received from
having seen in London the valuable antique Marbles, which you have brought hither from Greece. I think
that 1 can never see them often enough : and although my stay in this great capital must be extremely
short, I dedicate every moment that I can spare to the contemplation of these celebrated remains of ancient
art. t admire in them the truth of nature united to the choice of the finest forms. Every thing here
breathes life, with a veracity, with an exquisite knowledge of art, but without the least ostentation or parade
of it, which is concealed by consummate and masterly skill. The naked is perfect flesh, and most beautiful
in its kind. — I think myself happy in having been able to see with my own eyes these distinguished works;
and I should feel perfectly satisfied if I had come to London only to view them. Upon which account, the
admirers of art, and the artists, will owe to your Lordship a lasting debt of gratitude, for having brought
amongst us these noble and magnificent pieces of sculpture; and for my own part I beg leave to return you
my own most cordial acknowledgments ; and

I have the honour to be, &c. 8tc. & c.

CANOVA.

No. p. -

-Extract of a DESPATCH from his Excellency the Earl of Elgin
to Lord Hawkesbury, dated Constantinople.

January 1 3th, 1803.

“ I do not demand any allowances corresponding with those of the late extraordinary embassies from
Russia, although the honours and public disbursements of mine have been equally extraordinary ; nor can I
have a wish to make a charge of the many unusual expenses to which I have been subjected. Still, I confess
that the private expense which I have incurred to the extent of many thousand pounds, in improving the
advantages before me, towards procuring a knowledge of the arts of Greece, and rescuing some of their
remains from ruin ; and the loss of a valuable vessel of mine solely employed in that service, would make
any defalcation of the appointments affixed to my rank a matter of serious inconvenience to me.”

No. 10. — TRANSLATION from the Italian of a Fermaiin , or Official Letter from The Camacan
Pasha , (who filled the Office of Grand Vizier at The Porte , (during that Ministers absence
in Egypt,) addressed to The Cadi , or Chief Judge, and to The Vaivode, or Governor of Athens,
in 1801.

After the usual introductory compliments, and the salutation of Peace, — “ It is hereby signified to
you, that our sincere Friend, his Excellency Lord Elgin, Ambassador Extraordinary from the Court of
England to the Porte of Happiness, hath represented to us, that it is well known that the greater part of
the Frank (i. e. Christian) Courts are anxious to read and investigate the books, pictures, or figures, and
other works of science of the ancient Greek philosophers: and that, in particular, the ministers, or officers of
state, philosophers, primates, and other individuals of England, have a remarkable taste for the drawings, or
figures, or sculptures, remaining ever since the time of the said Greeks, and which are to be seen on the
shores of the Archipelago, and in other parts; and have, in consequence, from time to time, sent men to
explore and examine the ancient edifices, and drawings or figures. And that some accomplished Dilletanti
of the Court of England, being desirous to see the ancient buildings and the curious figures in the City of

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &e.

Athens, and the'old walls remaining since the time of the Grecians, which now subsist in the interior part of
the said place; his Excellency the said Ambassador hath therefore engaged five English painters, now-
dwelling at Athens, to examine and view, and also to copy the figures remaining there, antique: Ana ne
hath also at this time expressly besought us, that an Official Letter may be written from hence, ordering
that as long as the said painters shall be employed in going in and out of the said citadel ot Athens, wnrcn
is the place of their occupations; and in fixing scaffolding round the ancient Temple of the Idols mere;
and in moulding the ornamental sculpture and visible figures thereon, in plaster or gypsum; and in
measuring the remains of other old ruined buildings there; and in excavating, when they find it necessary,
the foundations, in order to discover inscriptions which may have been covered in the rubbish; ““ no
interruption may be given them, nor any obstacle thrown in their way by the Disdar (or commandant ot tne
citadel), or any other person: that no one may meddle with the scaffolding or implements they may require
in their works ; and that when they, wish to take away any pieces of stone with, old inscriptions or figures thereon,
that no opposition he made thereto. v ...

“ We therefore have written this Letter to you, and expedited it by Mr. Philip Hunt, an English
gentleman, Secretary of the aforesaid Ambassador, in order that, as soon as you shall have understood its
meaning, namely, that it is the explicit desire and engagement of this Sublime Court, endowed with all
eminent qualities, to favour such requests as the above mentioned, in conformity with what is due to tne
friendship, sincerity, alliance, and good will subsisting ah antique between the Sublime and ever durable
Ottoman Court and that of England, and which is on the side ot both those Courts manifestly increasing ;
particularly as there is no harm in the said figures and edifices being thus viewed, contemplated, and
designed. Therefore, after having fulfilled the duties of hospitality, and given a proper reception to the
aforesaid Artists, in compliance with the urgent request of the said Ambassador to that effect, and because it
is incumbent on us to provide that they meet no opposition in walking, viewing, or contemplating tne
figures and edifices they may wish to design or copy ; or in any of their works of fixing scaffolding, or using
their various implements ; It is our desire that, on the arrival of this Letter, you use your diligence to act
conformably to the instances of the said Ambassador, as long as the said five Artists, dwelling at Athens,
shall be employed in going in and out of the said citadel of Athens, which is the place of their occupations;
or in fixing scaffolding around the ancient Temple of the Idols, or in modelling with chalk or gypsum the
said ornaments and visible figures thereon ; or in measuring the fragments and vestiges of other ruined
edifices ; or in excavating, when they find it necessary, the foundations, in search of inscriptions among the
rubbish; that they he not molested by the said Disdar (or commandant of the citadel), nor by any other
persons, nor even by you (to whom this letter is addressed) ; and that no one meddle with their scaffolding
or implements, nor hinder them from taking away any pieces of stone with inscriptions or figures. In the above-
mentioned manner, see that ye demean and comport yourselves.

(Signed with a signet.) “ SEGED ABDULLAH KA1MACAN.

N. B. The words in Italian rendered in two places “ any pieces of stone,” are “ qualche pezzi di
pietra.”

APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE

No. 11.

CATALOGUE

THE ELGIN MARBLES, VASES, CASTS, AND DRAWINGS,

PREPARED FROM THE MS. OF MONSIEUR VISCONTI.

The Pediments of the Parthenon.
The Metopes.

The Frize (East end.)

(North side.)

(West end.)

(South side.)

(Not ascertained.)

Frize of the Temple of Victory.'

Doric Architecture.

Ionic Architecture,

Monuments relating to Bacchus.
Detached Heads.

Detached pieces of Sculpture.

Urns — Marble, Bronze, and Earthen.
Altars.

Cippi or Sepulchral Pillars.

Casts.

Greek Inscriptions.

Drawings,

Statues and Fragments from the
Western Pediment.

Part of the Chest and Shoulders of the
colossal figure in the centre (supposed
to be Neptune.)

Fragment of the colossal figure of Minerva.

Fragment of a Head (supposed to belong to
the preceding.)

Fragment of a statue of Victory.

Statue of a river-god, called Uissus,

Fragments of Statues from the
Pediments, the names or places of
which are not positively ascertained.

Female figure, sitting (supposed to belong to
group marked No. 6.)

Fragment of a Female figure (resembling
Victory, No. 10.)

Fragment ol a Female figure, seated (sup-
posed to have been Latona, holding Apollo
and Diana in her arms.)

Fragment (supposed to have belonged to a
grqup of Female figures.)

Fragment ot the Neck and Arms rising out
ol the Sea, called Hyperion, or the Rising
Sun.

Torso of a Male figure, with drapery thrown
over one shoulder,

The Metopes.

A Centaur with a long beard; raises himself
for the purpose of striking with a club a
Lapitha, who attacks him,

A Lapitha has overpowered a Centaur, whose
hands are tied behind his back.

A Centaur, who has thrown down a Lapitha,

A Centaur is carrying off a Woman,

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c.

5. A Centaur has thrown down a Lapitha, who I

is still defending himself, and holding up |
a shield.

6. A Lapitha is struggling with a Centaur, |

whom he holds by the hair and ear.

7. A Centaur is nearly overcoming a Lapitha.

8. A Lapitha seems to be successful against a

Centaur. J

9. A Centaur is throwing down a Lapitha, j

whom he holds by the hair.

10. A- Lapitha upon the croup of a Centaur,

seizes his neck, and endeavours to throw
him down.

11. A Centaur successful against a Lapitha:

12. A Lapitha, with covered legs, appears to be

successful against a Centaur, who is retir-
ing, and holds a lion’s skin over his left
arm.

13. Combat between a Centaur and Lapitha
* quite naked.

14. A Centaur is rearing up; the figure of the

Lapitha is detached from the marble, but
the Torso is adjoining.

C The Frize, representing the Procession
for celebrating the Panathencean
Festival.

The East End.

1 . The Slab which formed the south-east angle ;

representing a Bull on the south, and a
Magistrate or Director of the procession i
on the east side.

2. Fragments of four Male figures, moving to

their right.

3. Six Female figures, moving to their right,

and holding vases in their hands.

4, 5. Six Female figures, preceded by two Direc-
tors.

6, 7- Eight figures: the four which are standing
supposed to be four Directors ; the others
are called Castor and Pollux, Ceres and
Triptolemus.

8. Slab, on which are five figures : called

respectively, beginning from the left,
Victory, Minerva, Jupiter, two Cane-
phora.

9. Slab, on which are five figures : i. e. a Priest-

ess, or the Arehontissa; a Boy receiving
the peplum from the Archon, or one of
the Directors ; Hygaaia, and Esculapius.

10. Two Directors.

11. Five figures, corresponding with those

marked No. 6 and 7.

12. Five Females ; carrying respectively, a

candelabrum, vases, and patera.

D From the North Side of the Prize. '

1. Two Scaphephori moving towards the left.

2. A Female in a car drawn, by three horses,

with one of the Directors.

3. A Female in a car with two horses, and one

of the Directors.

4. A Female in a similar car; with two Men,

one of them in armour.

5. Two Men,. in a car drawn by three horses.

.5. Fragment of a Car with two Horses ; the

point of a ‘sceptre appears above the
horses.

6. Eight young Men on horseback, clothed in

tunics, which are raised above the khee.

7. . Four Horses and three Riders.

8. Three Horsemen, with tunics and buskins.

9. Three Horsemen in the same costume.

10. Three Horsemen ; one of them is naked, the

feet of the others are uncovered.

11. Three Horsemen; one of which is almost

effaced.

12. Four Horsemen; two with helmets, the

others naked.

13. Four Horsemen with tunics : the last has

a large Thessalian hat hung over his
shoulders.

14. North-west Angle of the Frize: — It repre-

sents three Men and a Boy on the western
side, and one of the Directors on the north
side.

E The Western End.

15. A single piece of the Frize, being a con-

tinuation of the foregoing No. 14: two
Horsemen, the one nearly naked ; the other
has a breastplate : both wear buskins.

* F South Side.

1. A Bull, with three Men, one of whom holds

back the animal.

2. Two Bulls and two Men.

3. Two Bulls and four Men ; one of the men

places a crown on his head, preparatory to
the celebration of the sacrifice.

4. Two Bulls and four Men.

5. One Bull and four Men; one of whom holds

back the animal.

6. A Car with two Horses and four Figures :

among them is a young Man, whose
tunic is drawn up above the knee, and
who holds a shield : he appears ready to
mount.

7. A Car with four Horses: in it is a Warrior

standing up, with helmet, shield, and
chlamyde : the other figure is seated, and
drives the car.

8. A Car with two Horses, moving in the s'ame

direction ; two Figures ; of which one,
who is getting into the car, holds a large
shield.

9. Fragment of another Car, moving in the

same direction.

10. Fragment of a similar subject.

11. Two Horsemen; one, nearly naked, seems to

have a Thessalian hat thrown over' his
shoulders.

12. Three Horsemen, all clothed in tunics.

13. Two Horsemen, one with buskins.

14. One Horseman, with several Horses.

G Detached Parts of the F rize of the Celia
of the Parthenon, the exact situa-
tions of which are not yet ascertained.

A. A Quadriga in slow motion; a Youth in
the tunic, with a shield, accompanies it ;
another points behind him, with his arm
naked.

The entry to

Animals for
sacrifice.

Cars.

Horsemen.

APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE

b. Three Horses in quick motion towards the

right ; the Riders wear the tunic.

c. Three Horses : the Riders are all clothed in

tunics.

». Thi ee Horsemen in armour.

E. Two Horsemen in tunics; one has his right
hand on his horse’s head.

f. Two Horsemen in armour : the foremost has

an helmet ; the other appears, from the
holes which are in the Marble, to have
had some ornament of metal fixed on the
head.

g. Two Horsemen in tunics ; part of three

Horses.

h. Part of three Horses, and three Riders in

cuirasses.

i. Fragment of Horsemen and Horses.

j. Fragment of four Horses and two Riders.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

H From the Temple of Victory.

1. Bas-relief, representing a Combat between

Greeks and Barbarians.

2. Another, representing the same subject.

3. Another, representing the same subject.

4. Similar Bas-relief, representing a Combat

between Greeks and Amazons.

I Fragments of Architecture, from
the Parthenon, Propyljea, and
other Doric Buildings.

1. A Doric Capital from the Parthenon, in two

pieces.

2. One layer of a Doric column, from the

same.

3. Fragments of the Frize of the Parthenon.

4. Fragments of the Architrave of Ditto.

5. Doric Capital from the Propylaea.

6. Part of a Doric Entablature, plain.

7. Two Tiles from the roof of the Ambulatory

of the Temple of Theseus.

8.
9-

10.

11.

13.

J From the Temple of Erectheus and
adjoining Buildings ; also Specimens
of Ionic Architecture.

1. One of the Caryatides which supported a

roof, under which the olive-tree sacred
to Minerva was supposed to have been
preserved.

2. Part of a Column from the Temple of

Erectheus, of the Ionic order.

3. Base of Ditto.

4. Capital of Ditto.

5. Detached part of the rich Frize, from the

same Temple.

6. Four fragments of ornamented Ionic Enta-

blature.

7. Three large Ditto.

8. One small Ditto.

9. One large Ditto, with inscriptions.

10. Ditto, ditto, Ionic Entablature.

11. Three upper parts of Columns of the Ionic

order.

12. Three large pieces of fluted Ionic Shaft.

10.

One large piece of fluted Ionic Shaft, short.

Two pieces of small Ionic Shaft, fluted and
reeded.

One Capital of Ionic pilaster.

Two Ionic Capitals.

Two parts of Ionic Entablature.

One large Ionic Capital.

Monuments appertaining to the Worship
and the Theatre o/ Bacchus.

A colossal Statue of Bacchus, which was
placed over the Theatre.

A Sun-dial, from the same.

A complete Series of Casts from the Bas-
reliefs on the Choragic Monument of
Lysicrates.

A Bas-relief with four figures, representing a
Bacchanalian Dance.

Detached Heads.

Portrait, larger than nature, with long beard
and deeply cut eyes, a diadem round the
hair ; perhaps Sophocles.

Portrait, somewhat similar to the preceding
one.

Fragment of Augustus.

Fragment : the style, times of the Republic.

A bearded Hercules.

Same subject, smaller size.

Bacchus crowned with ivy.

Female Head.

One half of a Head, without any beard, with
long hair, in the costume of Alexander, or
of the Dioscuri.

Fragment of an old Head, larger than nature.

Fragment of a Head with a beard; it has a
conical cap: perhaps Ulysses or Vulcan.

Female Head, smaller than nature : the head-
dress of one of the Muses.

Female Head,, smaller than nature.

Detached Pieces of Sculpture.

Small Female figure erect, in the costume of
the Muse Polymnia : Found at Thebes.

Torso of a Male figure found at Epidauria.

Statue; supposed to-be Cupid.

A Choragic Bas-relief, on which is represented
a Temple of Apollo, with two figures.

Bas-relief of a Quadriga, in which is a Female
figure; a Victory in air is approaching to
crown her.

Female Figure, without a head ; small size.

Figure of a Telesphore, attendant of Escu-
lapius'; without a head.

Fragment of a Bas-relief, on which is a young
Man, who appears to be on a chariot led
by Victory.

Fragment of a Boy in alto relievo.

Bas-relief, representing a young Wrestler
with his Preceptor.

Bas-relief, representing Minerva in armour,
and a young Athenian.

Fragment of a Bas-relief ; a Sacrifice, of
which a Hog is the victim.

ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S COLLECTION OF MARBLES, &c. 73

IS. Fragment of a Bas-relief; a Sacrifice, of
which the victim is a Ram.

14. Two Divinities — Jupiter seated, a Goddess

standing up.

15. Two Goddesses taking a young Athenian

under their protection.

16‘. Fragment of a Bas-relief, on which are two
young Greeks, one holding an instrument
of sacrifice, called by the Romans cape-
duncula.

17. Small round Altar : four Female figures

sculptured on the four sides of it, are
dancing, holding each others’ hands ; the
first seems to be playing on a lyre.

18. Torso of a Female figure, in drapery.

19. Figure of a Horseman, apparently an

ancient imitation of part of the Frize
of the Parthenon, in smaller proportions.

20. Figure of a young Divinity, probably

Bacchus, taking an Athenian under his
protection ; the latter of smaller dimen-
sions.

20 b. Minerva, standing up in a kind of small
temple.

21. Figure of Hygeia : she is offering her cup

to the serpent, which is her symbol ; she
is holding, in her left hand, a kind of fan
in the form of leaves of ivy; her head is
covered with the high dress called tutulus.

22. Bas-relief, on which are represented five

Figures : in the midst is a Goddess on a
kind of throne, the other four are smaller;
three of them are imploring the Goddess
on behalf of their children, whom they
carry in their arms; the fourth is bring-
ing oblations and votive offerings. This
bas-relief is from Cape Sigeum, near the
plain of Troy.

23. Fragments similar to Nos. 12 and 13.

There are five figures, of which two are
Youths preparing to celebrate a sacrifice :
the last of the large figures has a basket
on its head.

24. One small Bas-relief; one sitting, two stand-

ing figures.

25. One Female figure sitting (much mutilated).

26. One trunk, with drapery (a young Man).

27. Two fragments of Grecian ornaments.

28. One Grecian fragment, with Vase in bas-

relief.

29. One fragment, with two Figures in high

relief.

30. One Grecian Pilaster with Corinthian

Capital.

31. Fragment of a Female.

32. Fragment of a Female figure enveloped in

drapery.

S3. Sundry small fragments.

34. Egyptian -Scarabreus, brought from Con-
stantinople.

6. Solid Urn, with Groupe in bas-relief, super-

scribed.

7. Ditto ditto ditto.

8. Ditto ditto ditto.

9- One ditto ditto ornamented Sepulchral Urn.

10. Small fragment of a Vase, with figures.

11. Spherical Sepulchral Urn, broken in pieces.
N. B. — This contained the Bronze Urn

(No. 12.)

U rn sb. (. Bronze .)

12. Richly wrought Urn, from the tomb called

“ of Aspasia,” in the plain of Attica.

13. Two bronze Urns, of rude shape and work-

manship.

Urns'. {Earthen.)

14. Some hundreds of large and small earthen-
ware Urns or Vases, discovered in digging
in the ancient Sepulchres round Athens :
none of great beauty, or richly ornamented.

o Altars.

1. Altar, with Female figure and Child.

2. Smaller Altar, with figures and inscription.

3. Fragment of a small Bacchanalian Altar; on

one side is a Bacchante, on the other a
Fawn.

4. Small Altar, with inscription and figures.

5. Ditto.

6. Ditto.

7. Ditto.

8. Ditto.

P Cippi, or Sepulchral Pillars.

1 . One large Sepulchral Pillar, with inscriptions.

2. One smaller ditto ditto ditto.

3. One small Sepulchral Pillar.

4. Ditto ditto

5. Ditto ditto.

6. Ditto ditto.

7. Ditto ditto.

8. Ditto ditto.

9. Ditto ditto.

10. Ditto ditto.

11. Ditto ditto.

12. Ditto ditto.

13. Three fragments, with circular Pedestals and

Festoons.

Q Casts.

N Urns*. {Marble.)

1. Solid Urn, with Groupe in bas-relief, super-
scribed.

Ditto

ditto

ditto.

Ditto

ditto

ditto.

Ditto

ditto

ditto.

Ditto

ditto

ditto.

1. Eighteen Casts, from the Frize of the Celia

of the Parthenon.

2. Twenty-four ditto, from the Frize and

Metopes of the Temple of Theseus.

S. Twelve ditto, from the Choragic Monument
of Lysicrates (mentioned above.)

4. One Cast, from the great Sarcophagus in the
cathedral church at Girgenti in Sicily.
[Also the Moulds of the above.]

■ <?i

:;it

f«t

appendix to report prom SELECT COMMITTEE, &c.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.
19-
20.
21.
22.

24.

25.

26.

27.

/28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.
37-

38.

39.

41.

42, 43.

44.

Greek Inscriptions.

Epitaph in four lines on two brothers,
Diotrephes and Demophon.

Sepulchral Column of Thalia.

Ditto of Theodotus.

Ditto of Socrates.

Ditto of Menestratus.

Votive Inscription of certain Sailors.
Sepulchral Column of an Athenian.
Fragment.

Decree of the People of Athens in favour of
Isacharas.

Votive Inscription of Antisthenes.

Votive Inscription of Polyllus.

Sepulchral Column of Anaxicrates.

Votive Inscription of a Woman.

Agonistic Inscription.

Fragment of Sepulchral Inscription.
Choragic Inscription in the Doric dialect.
Epitaph in Verse, in two parts. Vide No. 34.
Votive Monument to Mercury and Hercules.
Sepulchral St£le of Hieroclea.

Ditto of Callis.

Ditto of Callimachus.

Fragment of a Decree, probably an ancient
Treaty between Athens and some other
People.

Catalogue of Athenians who died in battle
in the year 424 B. C.

Epitaph on Plutarchus.

Fragment of a Decree.

Ditto from Tenos.

Fragment of a Stele of Euphrosynus.

Ditto of a Sepulchral Stele of Musonia.
Fragment of an Epitaph in honour of
Briseis.

Ditto of an Address to Hadrian.

Ditto of a Decree of the People of Athens.
Decree of the General Council of Baaotia.
Inscription of the Gymnasiarch Gorgias.
The other part of No. 17.

Catalogue of the Public and Sacred Trea-
sures at Athens.

Ditto ditto ditto.

Fragment of a Treaty between Athens and
Rhegium.

Ditto of a Column which supported the
Statue of Pison.

Ancient Sepulchral Inscription.

Catalogue of precious objects in the Opis-
thodomus.

Treaty between Erchomenos and Elatasa.
Similar to Nos. 42, 43.

Similar to the preceding.

Fragment of a Decree.

Ditto of a Decree from Corinth.

Ditto with the name of Hiera Pytna.
Catalogue of Public Treasures, more recent
than Nos. 42, 43, 8cc.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58.

59.

60.

62.

63.

64.

65.

66.

Decree in honour of Bacchus and Antoninus
PiUS. , , « T*r •

Sepulchral Stele, with the names ot Hippo-
crates and Baucis. .

Sigseati Inscription, commonly called the
Boustrophedon.

Sepulchral Inscription on an Entablature.

Sepulchral Column of Biotius.

Ditto of Thysta.

Ditto of Thrason.

Stele of Asclepiodorus.

Sepulchral Column of Aristides.

Eleven votive Inscriptions, consecrated to
Jupiter Hypsistos, bearing respectively
the names of Claudia Prepousa, Evhodus,
Patderos, Philematium, Onesimd, Jsias,
Eutychis, Olympius, Tertia, Syntrophus.

Fragment of a Decree between Athens and
some other People.

Sepulchral Column of Botrichus.

Public Act of Athens respecting the Roads.

Epitaph, in twelve elegiac verses, in honour
of those Athenians who were killed at
the Sies-e of Potidsea, in the year 432
B. C. .

Sepulchral Stele in honour of Aristocles.

Ditto in honour of Aphrodisias of Salamis.

For a Description of the preceding
Inscriptions, reference is given to
the printed Catalogue drawn up by
Monsieur Visconti; the numbers of
which are here preserved.

Drawings.

Plans and Elevations of the Temples of
Minerva and Theseus at Athens.

Architectural 4etaiis of the Temples of
Minerva and Theseus ; of Minerva at
Sunium ; Plan of the Pnyx ; Plans and
Drawings of the Theatre of Bacchus.

Drawings of the Sculpture on the Temples of
Minerva and Theseus; on the Temple of
Victory; on the Choragic Monument of
Lysicrates.

Ground-plan of Athens, marking the Walls,
and the site of the existing Ruins: Draw-
in gs of t h e To w er of A n d r o n i c u s Cy r r h es tes ;
of the Propyleea; of the triple Temple, of
Minerva Polias, Erectheus and Pandrosus.

A series of Drawings and Plans of ancient
Remains in many parts of Greece, taken
in the year 1802.

' Addenda.

One Lyre in Cedar wood ; and

Two Flutes of the same material ; — found
during the excavations among the Tombs
in the neighbourhood of Athens.

HISTORY

THE TEMPLE OE MINERVA,

CALLED

PARTHENON AND HECATOMPEDON.

This Temple was built during the administration of Pericles, who employed Callicrates and
Ictinus as Architects, under Phidias, to whom he committed the direction of all works of elegance
and magnificence *.

It has been celebrated by some of the most eminent writers of antiquity!; whose accounts
are confirmed and illustrated in the descriptions given us by those travellers, who saw it almost
entire in the last century. Even in its present state, (1751,) the spectator, on approaching it, will find
himself not a little affected by so solemn an appearance of ruined grandeur. Accustomed as we
were to the ancient and modern magnificence of Rome, and by what we had heard and read,
impressed with an advantageous opinion of what w-e were come to see, we found the image, our fancy
had preconceived, greatly inferior to the real object.

When Sir George Wheler and Dr. Spon visited Athens in the year 1676, this Temple was
entire ; and the former has given the following description of it :

“ It is situated about the middle of the Citadel, and consists altogether of admirable white
“ marble. The plane of it is "above twice as long as it is broad; being 217 feet 9 inches long,
“ and 98 feet 6 inches broad. It hath an ascent every wray of five degrees, or steps; which
“ seem to be so contrived, to serve as a Basis to the Portico; which is supported by chanelled
“ Pillars of the Doric order, erected round upon them, without any other Basis. These Pillars are
“ 46 in number, being eight to the front, and as many behind, and 17 on each side, counting the
“ four corner ones twice over to be deducted. They are 42 feet high and 17^- feet about. The
“ distance from Pillar to Pillar is 7 feet 4 inches. This Portico beareth up a Front, and Freeze
“ round about the Temple, charged with historical Figures of admirable beauty and work. The
“ figures of the Front, w'hich the ancients called the Eagle, appear, though from that height, of
il the natural bigness ; being in entire Relievo, and wonderfully well carved. Pausanius saith no
“ more of them, than that they concern the birth of the Goddess Minerva. What I observed, and
“ remembered of them, is this :

“ There is a figure that stands in the middle of it, having its right arm broken, which probably
“ held the Thunder. Its legs straddle at some distance from each other, where, without doubt,

* Plutarch in the Life of Pericles.

t The reader will find an ample collection of what the ancients have said concerning this Temple in Meursius’s Cecropia,
and his Lectiones Atticce, printed in the 4th and 5th volumes of Gronovius’s Thesaurus Antiquitatum Grxcarum.

HISTORY OF THE PARTHENON.

V '

was placed the Eagle : for its Beard, and the majesty which the Sculptor hath expressed in his
: Countenance, although those other usual characters be wanting here, do sufficiently show it to
have been made for Jupiter. He stands naked; for so he was usually represented, especially by
the Greeks. At his right hand is another Figure, with its hands and arms broken off, covered
half way the legs, in a posture as coming towards Jupiter; which, perhaps, was a Victoiy,
leading the Horses of the triumphant Chariot of Minerva, which follows it. The Horses aie made
with such great art, that the Sculptor seems to have outdone himself, by giving them a more
: than seeming life, such a vigour is expressed in each posture of their prauncing and stamping,

: natural to generous horses. Minerva is next represented in the Chariot, rather as the Goddess
! of Learning than of War, without Helmet, Buckler, or a Medusa’s Head on her breast*. Next
[ behind her is another Figure of a woman sitting with her head broken off ; who it was is not

: certain. But my companion made me observe the next two Figures, sitting in the corner, to

: be of the Emperor Adrian, and his Empress Sabina ; whom I easily knew to be so, by the many

Medals and Statues I have seen of them. At the left hand of Jupiter are five or six other

Figures: my Companion taketh them to be an Assembly of the Gods, where Jupiter intro-
duced! Minerva, and owneth her for his Daughter. The Postick, or Hind-Front, was adorned
: with Figures, expressing Minerva’s contest with Neptune about naming the City of Athens ; but
1 now all of them are fallen down, only part of a Sea-horse excepted. The Architrave is also
charged with a Basso-relievo at several distances, divided into squares of about two or three feet
broad, and three or four feet high. — Within the Portico on high, and on the outside of the Celia of
: the Temple itself, is another border of Basso-relievo round about it, or at least on the North and
South sides ; which, without doubt, is as ancient as the Temple, and of admirable work ; but not so
high a Relievo as the other. Thereon are represented Sacrifices, Processions, and other Ceremonies
: of the heathens’ worship. Most of them were designed by the Marquis De Nointel; who employed
a Painter to do it two months together, and shewed them to us, when we waited on him at Con-
stantinople. The Celia of the Temple without is 158 feet long, and broad 67 feet. Before you
enter into the body of the Temple from the Front, is the Pronaos, whose roof is sustained by six
chanelled Pillars of the same order and bigness with those of the Portico, and contains near
: the third part of the Celia ; to wit, 44 feet of the length. We observed, in place of one of the
Pillars, a great Pile of Stone and Lime, of most rude work ; which they told us the Kislar-Haga
had ordered to be so done, to help to support the Roof ; because he could never find a stone
big enough to supply the place of the old Pillar broken down, although he had spent two
thousand crowns to do it. — From the Pronaos we entered into the Temple by a long Door
in the middle of the Front. But my Companion and I were not so much surprised with the
obscurity of it, as Monsieur Guiliter ; because the observations we had made on other heathen
Temples did make it no new thing to us. — When the Christians consecrated it to serve God
' in, they let in the light at the East end, which is all that it yet hath ; and not only that, but made
: a semicircle for the Holy-Place, according to their Rites ; which the Turks have not yet much
altered. This was separated from the rest by Jasper Pillars ; two of which on each side yet
remain. Within this chancel is a Canopy sustained by four Porphyry Pillars, with beautiful white
marble Chapters of the Corinthian order : but the Holy Table under it is removed. Beyond the
Canopy are two or three degrees one above another in a semicircle, where the Bishop and
Presbyters used to sit in time of Communion, upon certain solemn days. The Bishop sat in

* Perhaps her Helmet, Buckler, and Algis, were of gold, or of brass gilt: for we observed this kind of decoration to have
been practised in the basso-relievos remaining on the freeze which surrounds the Parthenon, and on that within the Portico
of the Temple of Theseus : if so, the Goddess would certainly have been despoiled of those ornaments long before Wheler
and Spon visited Athens.

HISTORY OF THE PARTHENON.

“ a Marble Chair above the rest ; which yet remaineth above the Degrees, against the window. On
“ both sides, and towards the Door, is a kind of Gallery, made with two ranks of Pillars, twenty-two
“ below, and twenty-three above : the odd Pillar is over the arch of the entrance, which w-as left for
“ the passage. — They showed us the place where two Orange-trees of Marble had stood, which being
“ taken thence to be carried to Constantinople, the vessel miscarried with them. The Roof over the
“ Altar and Choir, added to the Temple by the Greeks, hath the picture of the Holy Virgin on it, of
“ Mosaic work, left yet by the Turks. — This Temple was covered outwardly with great Planks of
“ Stone, of which some are fallen down, and are to be seen in the Mosque*.”

Thus far Sir George Wheler, who has copied this account from Dr. Spon, and added to it some
mistakes of his own, which I have omitted. Dr. Spon tells us the measures were taken in French
feet; therefore reckoning the diameters of the Columns 5. ^50 such feet, the extent of the Front
between the outer surfaces of the angular Columns, reduced to English measure, will be found nearly
102 feet 2 inches, that of the side 225 feet 101 inches. But measures obtained by girting the
circumferences of Columns are little to be depended on.

In our way to it from the City, we passed by the Theatre of Bacchus, and came to the Propylsea,
which are miserably ruined, and thence through a street of scattered houses to the western Front of
the Temple, the majestic appearance of which cannot easily be described.

On this Front, the Walls, with their Antse, and all the Columns of the Portico, with their Enta-
blature and Pediment, are standing ; and the architecture has suffered little ; but the Sculptures in the
Metopes, and the Figures in the Pediment, are defaced and ruined.

The Columns of the Portico stand on a Pavement, raised three steps above the ground ; and
there are two more from the Portico to the Pronaus (or rather Posticus, fpr the Pronaus was in reality
at the opposite Front) : from this there is another step, little more than an inch in height, into the
Temple ; so inconsiderable a rise has occasioned this step to remain hitherto unnoticed.

The inside of the Temple was divided by a cross wall ; and the lesser division, the Pavement of
which is level with the top of the little step last mentioned, is the part into which you first enter :
Wheler and Spon have called it improperly the Pronaus.

This was undoubtedly the Opisthodomus, where the public treasure was kept. Here the Columns,
mentioned by those travellers, are no longer remaining ; but part of the rude Mass, said to have been
erected by a Kislar-Aga, is still to be seen. Hence you pass into the greater division ; at the western
end of which, and on both the sides, the pavement of the Opisthodomus is continued on the same
level, to about 15 feet from the Walls, enclosing an area sunk a little more than an inch below it.
Near the edge of the little step down into this area are still to be seen, distinctly traced, certain circles ;
on these doubtless the Columns of the Peristyle were placed, w'hich supported the Galleries mentioned
by Wheler: at present, not only those Galleries are entirely destroyed, but the Walls of this part, with
fourteen of the Columns of the Peripteros, are no longer standing ; and the Pavement is strewed with
pieces of sculpture, some of which are very large, and all of them of excellent workmanship.

In this division stood the famous statue of Minerva, of ivory and gold, the work of Phidias.
Pausanias says, it was standing erect, her garment reaching to her feet ; she had a helmet on, and a
Medusa’s head on her breast; in one hand she held a spear, and on the other stood a Victory of
about four cubits high. Pliny tells us the statue was twenty-six cubits high, in which he perhaps
included the pedestal; whereon they both say, the Birth of Pandora was represented'!'. We are not
told whether the ivory was painted ; but by what Strabo says, that Pantenus, the brother or nephew

* YVheler’s Journey into Greece, from p. 360 to p, 364.

t Pausanias Attic, c. xxiv. p. 58, and Plinii Nat. Hist. 1. xxxvi. c. 5. where for “ Ibi dii sunt triginla numcro nascentes,”
perhaps we should read, “ Ibi dii sunt porrigentes munera nascenti.” See Hesiod, “Epy. hp. ver. 81.

HISTORY OF THE PARTHENON.

of Phidias, assisted him in colouring the statue of Jupiter at Elis, which was likewise of ivory and
gold, it probably was*. The reason why ivory was used in statues of this kind rather than wood
seems not to have been on account of its colour, but because wood is apt to crack, and to be destroyed
by worms : for ivory is not of an uniform colour, being yellow near the outside of the tooth, and white
in the middle; it therefore would require painting on that account, and likewise to hide the joinings
of the pieces.

Thucydides says, the gold about it weighed 40 talents f, which, according to the value of gold at
that time, was worth above £ 120,000 sterling. Lachares stript it off about 130 years after the death
of Pericles J, and we do not read that it was ever replaced.

Respecting the Peplus of Minerva ||, in the Parthenon, and the Parapetasma of Jupiter

* nowu* o'. <™,.orpafi tu <1. Uut'lumt o «rpos rt tb» tS |oa»H jmsWx.oI. o.i to. rut y^u^urut xov/oovtf.

Strabo, 1. viii. p. 354.

Pantcenus the Painter assisted Phidias in finishing the Statue, by beautifying it with colours. See also Plin. Nat.
Hist. 1. xxxv. c. 8. t Thucydides, 1. 11. § 13. J Pausan. in Attic, c. xxv. p. 6l.

|| Meursius has collected from ancient authors many particulars concerning this Peplus : see his Panathenaica, and
Reliquice Att. &c. It was the work of young virgins, selected from the best families in Athens, over whom two of the
principal, called Arrephorce, were superintendents. It was a principal ornament of the Panathenaic festival ; on it was
embroidered the Battle of the Gods and Giants; among the Gods was Jupiter hurling his Thunderbolts against that rebellious
crew, and Minerva, seated in her Chariot, appeared the vanquisher of Typhon or Enceladus. (See the chorus at the end of
the second act of the Hecuba.) The names of those Athenians who had been eminent for military virtue, were also
embroidered on it. When the festival was celebrated, this Peplus was brought from the Acropolis, where it had been worked ;
down into the city ; it was then displayed and suspended as a sail to the ship, which, on that day, attended by a numerous
and splendid procession, was conducted through the Ceramicus, and other principal streets, till it had made the circuit of the
Acropolis; the Peplus was then carried up to the Parthenon, and there consecrated to Minerva. That it did not serve to
clothe or envelope the statue of the Goddess, but to hang over it, is evident from what Pollux has observed on this word :
IIeVTio;, labnpct xat r a. Spout. Ylsn^uv ¥ Ir‘ tw %§eiosv. hifrvtut re xat ETnfaAXscrSfia. x«i ore ew'eGtopct Ir* TEx//.ij§air ctv T«;

lx ruv rvi iten'huv. J. Poll. 1. vii. c. 13. “ Peplus, a garment and the like ; the use of it is twofold, to wear as a

“ garment, or to cover something: that it signifies a covering, we may conclude from the Pepli of Minerva." Had the Peplus
been intended to clothe the statue, or to hang before it like a curtain, Pollux would not have used the words EwiSctMEo-Gat,
and W&Mpct", therefore it must have been intended to hang above it as an awning to keep off the dust; and if the Temple
was an Hypasthros, to preserve it from the weather. Homer likewise uses Peplus in the same sense, when Pandarus tells
iEneas he had left his Chariots at home covered with Pepli. Iliad E. ver. 194. But it no where appears more clearly, than
in the following quotation from the Ion of Euripides, that the word Peplus is sometimes used to signify a covering, or what in
our sea-phrase is called an awning, spread over an open space to keep off the sun. For the better understanding of this
passage, it seems not amiss to premise, that Xuthus, induced by the answer of the Oracle to acknowledge Ion for his son,
prepares to go from Delphi to the top of Parnassus, and there, grateful for the discovery, offer a sacrifice to Bacchus. Before
his departure, he commands Ion to erect a tent, and therein feast, during his absence, what friends remain at Delphi.

o Je vtctvictq

SepvSf ctroeypeq TTEgi o"/.Y)vvpctTuv
Opdorctruis tSpvef)’, tiXla tpXoyoq
K cthuq ipuTiafai;, art irppq ptactq (SoTva;

AicJi'noq, ar ctv teTievt arctq /3iov, &C,

Instant at his behest the pious youth
Uprears th’ enclosure of the ample tent,

Fram’d to exclude the sun's meridian blaze,

Or the mild splendor of his parting ray.

5 No wall he rais’d; the neighb’ring woods afford
Supporters apt, without the mason’s aid.

Rang’d in right lines, the numerous stakes extend
In length a hundred feet, in breadth a hundred ;

Enclosing, as the skilful say, a square

HISTORY OF THE PARTHENON.

Olympius* in Elis, mentioned by Pausanias in his description of that Temple, it may be conjectured
each of them was suspended in their respective situations, so as to afford the requisite shade or shelter
to those most celebrated statues.

The greatest part of the Pediment, fronting the east, is demolished : the figures remaining in its
extreme angles are so far distant from any place where they could be distinctly seen, that no
particular drawings from them have been made ; though, as this was the principal front, there can be
no doubt but that the sculpture here was at least equal, both for composition and execution, to that in
the western front.

The Eastern front of the Temple hath suffered more than the Western; all the Walls, and five
of the Columns of the Pronaus, are down ; but the eight Columns in front, with their Entablature,

10 Of full ten thousand feet; in which to feast
All Delphi, he prepares the genial board.

Then from the treas’ry of the God he takes
The consecrated tap’stry, splendid woof!

To clothe with grateful shade the wondrous scene.

15 First o’er the roof he spreads the skirted Peplus
(The skirts on ev’ry side hang waving down),

Spoil of the Amazons, the votive gift.

That Hercules, heroic son of Jove,

Return’d from conquest, offer’d to Apollo.

20 On this rich produce of the loom are wrought
The Heav’ns, within whose spacious azure round
The num’rous host of stars collective shine ;

Ilis coursers there, down to his western goal
The Sun has driven ; his last expiring beams
25 Draw forth the radiant light of Hesperus ;

In sable stole Night urges on amain

With slacken’d reins her steeds and dusky car;

The Constellations on their swarthy queen
Attend ; there thro’ the raid heav’ns win their way
30 The Pleiades ; his sword Orion grasps ;

Above them shines the Bear, circling around
Heav’n’s golden axis; while the full-orb’d Moon,

That halves the varying months, darts from on high
Her grateful splendor ; there the Plyades,

35 To mariners unerring well-known sign,

Appear; and glowing in the east Aurora
The harbinger of day, that from the sky
Chases night’s glittering train.

Ion, Act the IVth, Scene the 1st.

Plere we see, without a comment, the use to which this species of the Peplus was applied, and the magnificence with which
it was supposed it might be sometimes adorned. I must nevertheless add, that although the description I have quoted may
appear to us at first sight, strangers as we are to this sumptuous kind of apparatus, to be merely a licentious fiction of the
Poet, it must have had a different effect, when recited to an Athenian audience, accustomed to view with delight the
decorations wrought on the Peplus they consecrated to Minerva, and suspended in the Parthenon.

* This Parapetasma, Pausanias informs us, (1. v. p. 405.) was a magnificent purple veil, the offering of King Antiochus : it
either hung down from the roof of the Temple, and was spread before the Statue, or it covered the open space of the
Hypaethros. The Romans had Velaria stretched aloft over their Theatres and Amphitheatres ; they were extended over a
much larger space than the aperture of an Hypasthros : and we find the purple Velarium, which Nero spread over the
Theatre, is called Parapetasmata by Xiphilin. On it, he says, Nero represented a Heaven spangled with stars, and his own
portrait in the middle, figured like Apollo driving his Chariot; taking the idea, perhaps, (as Euripides seems to have done
before him,) from the Pepli, or the Parapetasmata, that were suspended in some of the Grecian Temples,

HISTORY OF THE PARTHENON.

remain pretty entire in their original situation, though much the greater part of the Pediment is
wanting.

All the Metopes in the Freeze (in number 92) have likewise been enriched with Sculpture ; those
on the south side had each a Groupe of Two Figures, representing a Centaur combating a Lapitha :
they are in alto relievo, most of them miserably broken, though not so entirely defaced as those on the
Metopes of the northern side and the two fronts.

But the principal piece of Sculpture we saw here, is the remaining part of the Freeze immediately
under the Soffit or Ceiling of the Peripterus : it is three feet four inches in height, and was continued
quite round on the outside of the wall of the Temple ; so that the whole length must have measured
at least 520 feet: the work is admirable, and the subject interesting. It represents the Panathenalc
Procession, as will be evident on comparing the following Plates with the accounts yet remaining of
that splendid solemnity.

The Pediments of the Parthenon were destroyed by a bomb, which fell on the Temple in 1687,
during the siege of Athens, by the Venetians, and demolished the whole roof. M. Olier de Nointel,
ambassador from France to the Porte in 1670, employed a Flemish artist to make drawings of the
sculpture of this building, and particularly of that in the Pediments. These drawings, which are m
red chalk, appear not to have been made till 1683 : they were lost for a long time, but were found a
few years ago in the cabinet of prints in the French National Library at Paris : by the liberality of the
Superintendant of that noble institution, copies of them were allowed to be made of the same size as
the originals, with the most scrupulous exactness, by an eminent French artist.

Pausanias gives but a transient account of this Temple ; nor does he say whether Adrian repaired
it; though his Statue, and that of his Empress Sabina, in the Western Pediment, have occasioned a
doubt whether the Sculptures in both were not put up by him. Wheler and Spon were of this
opinion, and say they were whiter than the rest of the building. The Statue of Antinous, now
remaining at Rome, may be thought a proof that there were artists in his time capable of executing
them ; but this whiteness is no proof that they were more modern than the Temple, for they might
be made of a whiter marble ; and the heads of Hadrian and Sabina might be put on two of the
ancient Figures, which was no uncommon practice among the Romans. And if we may give credit
to Plutarch, the buildings of Pericles were not in the least impaired by age in his time*; therefore
this Temple could not want any material repairs in the reign of Hadrian, unless the damage the
Opisthodomus once suffered by fire, for which, Demosthenes tells us, not only the Treasurers of the
Goddess, but likewise those of the other Gods, were imprisoned!, had remained so long unrepaired,
which is not probable.

The name of this Temple (Hecatompedon) implying that it extended a hundred feet, led me to
inquire into the measure of the Attic Foot. For which purpose I compared the length of the lower
Step in front, with its length on the side, and found them incommensurable ; neither were the front and
side lengths of the step above it commensurable with each other. But the third Step, on which the
Columns of the Portico stand, measured 101 feet IrV inch English in front, and 227 feet 7-is inch on
each side, which are so nearly in the proportion of 100 to 225, that, had the greater measure been
£ of an inch less, it would have been deficient of it.

These measures were taken from a brass scale of three feet, divided by that eminent Artist
Mr. John Bird, whose works are known all over Europe.

The front measure give an Attic Foot of 12,137 London inches and decimals; the side measure
one of 12,138.

Hence the Roman foot, which, according to Pliny, was to the Attic in the proportion of 600

• Plutarch in Pericle, p. 352. Edit. Bryani.

t Demosthenes, c. Tiragcratera, p. 467. n. 21 6. Edit. Paris, 1570, where see the Scholiast.

HISTORY OF THE PARTHENON.

to 625*, or of 24 to 25, will be found to be 1 1,651 London inches and decimals, or 971 such parts,
as the London foot contains 1000 ; which does not sensibly differ from what has been determined by
other methods f.

I cannot conclude without mentioning, that while I measured the Steps of this Portico, I
observed the blocks of Marble, of which they are composed, appeared to be united and grown
together, on their contiguous edges, the whole height of the step; and this apparent junction
continued to some distance within the Portico. To satisfy myself in this particular, I traced the
joint till no doubt remained of the separation; then returning to the edge of the Step, I broke
off a piece across the joint with a hammer, which verified my conjecture ; for in the piece thus
broken off, one half of which was part of one block, and the other, part of the block next to it,
the two parts adhered together as firmly as if they had never been separate.

Other instances of this coalition we meet with, which were always, as here, in the perpendicular
joint, never in the horizontal.

* Plinii Nat. Hist. 1. ii. c. 23. Strabo, 1. vii. p. 322. say 585 Roman miles, according to the common reckoning of eight
stadia to a mile make 4280 stadia. But if with Polybius we reckon 8£ stadia to a mile, we must add 178 siadia to that
number. The stadium was 600 Greek feet, and Polybius did not allow for the difference between the Greek and the Roman
foot. For if the two feet were equal, as Polybius supposed, 8£ stadia of 600 feet each would be equal to 5000 Homan feet,
or 1000 paces, which was a Roman mile : but if the stadium measured 625 Roman feet, as Pliny says it did, eight stadia
would be equal to a Roman mile, which Strabo says was the common reckoning,
f See Philosophical Transactions for the year 1760, p. 820.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE I.

View of the Eastern Portico of the Temple of Minerva at Athens , called the Parthenon.

This Front was more injured by the explosion of the powder, which happened during the siege already
mentioned, than the Front facing the West, for here much the greater part of the Pediment is wanting. In
the space between the columns is seen the present Moschea (1T51), built within the area of the Parthenon.

PLATE II.

Plan of the Temple.

A. A. The Eastern 'Front, in which was the principal entrance.

B. The Pronaus.

b. b. The Antae.

c. c. Columns on the shoulders of the Pronaus. Between b. and c. are lateral entrances, continued
from the front to the sides.

D. D. The Cell in which the Statue of the Goddess was placed. . The circles on this part are still
visible, and mark the places on which the columns of the Peristyle stood.

d. d. The middle of the cell open to the sky, in which the pavement lay about 1 1 inch below the pave-
ment on the sides.

E. E. The Opisthodomus, the roof of which was originally supported by six columns ; one of which, as
Wheler and Spon inform us, was wanting; its place being supplied by a rude mass of stone and lime
erected at the expense of a Kislfir-Agfi. At present no traces of these columns are to be seen.

e. e. The remains of that rude mass, erected by the Kislar-Agfi. This, we suppose, gives nearly the
place of the ruined column, mentioned by the above cited travellers; and assists in determining the situation
of the other five ; for which we have no other authority.

PLATE III.

Elevation of the Western Portico of the Temple restored;

With architectural dimensions, and the composition of the Sculpture in the Pediment, restored by
Stuart, who had not seen the drawings of the Mai'quis de Nointel, he says, “ In the Western Pediment,
“ which extends almost one hundred feet, the figures are so ruined, as to prevent my making any particular
“ drawings from them ; I have, nevertheless, from the fragments we saw there, and the descriptions of
« Wheler and Spon, attempted to give a general idea of its appearance when entire ; not from any opinion
“ that I was able truly to restore what is wanting, but merely to shew the effect of so ample a Pediment
“ filled with such a quantity of excellent sculpture

• It should be observed, that by an error of the engraver, easily accounted for, the position of the figures in this Plate have been
reversed, i. e. those on the left hand of Jupiter should be on his right, and those on his right should be on his left hand, according to the
description of Wheler and Spon.

description of the plates.

■

I > i

PLATE IV.

A transverse Section of the Portico to the West.

Here the exterior columns are removed to shew the place of the Frieze enriched with sculpture, which
is continued quite round the Celia of the Temple, the representation of which forms the principal subjects ot
the following Plates.

PLATE V.

The Pediments of the Temple as they were in the Year 1683.

These exhibit the entire composition of the sculpture in that to the West, before the Temple was
destroyed by the explosion of the bomb in 1687. This Plate was made from a tracing, obtained with some
difficulty from Paris, by means of General Miranda, in 1810. The following remarks are translated from
a communication, accompanying the tracings, from M. Legrand, architect, to General Miranda.

“ No. 1. Two drawings, which ought to be united*, shewing together the figures of the western Pediment
“ of the Temple of Minerva at Athens. They were made by order of M. de Nointel, the French ambassador
“ at the Ottoman Porte, in 1683, before the destruction of part of the Temple by a bomb thrown by the
“ Venetians. See No. 1951 of the ‘ Topographie de laTurquie d’ Europe.’

“ This is the account written on the originals, which are drawn in red chalk, relieved by a ground of
“ black : they appear to be faithful copies, but the artist has given to the forms something of the style of
“ that period. They are deficient in the great and severe character of Grecian sculpture. I have copied
“ them exactly as they are, without the least alteration.

“ There are in the same Collection thirty-eight other drawings of the friezes and bas-reliefs of this Temple,
u and that of Theseus, executed in the same manner, a bad view, some bas-reliefs of the Tower of the
“ Winds, and of another edifice ; but there is nothing of what has been commonly called the Lantern of
“ Demosthenes.

“ I am indebted for the following observations to M. Fauvel, painter and antiquary, wh<5 has resided
“ fifteen years at Athens and in its neighbourhood, and who has moulded most of these sculptures.

“ These figures had bronze ornaments, at least if one may judge from the head of Sabina A, which,
“ having fallen off, being much mutilated, has been brought to M. Fauvel. Holes may, still be observed,
“ apparently to receive little gudgeons of bronze by which the crown was fastened. The head B of the
“ Emperor Hadrian still remains. This group has probably been supplied afterwards in honour of this
“ Emperor : it is of a different workmanship from the other figures.

“ All these beautiful remains of the two pediments are of Pentelicf marble of the finest execution, and
“ most exquisite workmanship ; the figures are insulated, and as carefully finished behind as in front ;
“ they were probably executed separately in the workshop, and put successively in their places. One may
“ see still in the blocks of the tympanum, holes and even fragments of the bolts and cramps, which retained
“ these figures in their places. The iron was black and decomposed by time. M. Fauvel thinks that some
“ process must have been used, which has preserved them for so long a period.

“ One of the horses of the car still exists, built up in the walls of the fortress. The egis at C is very
“ remarkable. It is not easy to decide if the heads at D were fragments, or if they were intended to repre-
“ sent people in the back-ground : whatever they are, they exist in the original drawing.

“ The figure at E fell down, and the head being buried in the earth, while the legs and the lower part of
“ the body were exposed, the Turks, who pass by continually in their way to the mosque, have broken it,
“ and incrusted the fragments in the walls, from which, however, they might be collected and restored : this
“ M. Fauvel was in hopes of being able to accomplish.

“ The work at F, which is apparently of brick, has been either added, in order to sustain the figure
“ in danger of falling, or to support a little bell : the appearance of an arch is favourable to this latter
“ supposition.

\Mi

* In this Plate they have been united,
t The only Parian marble employed at Athens is ii
soffites, is of Pentelic marble.

the bas-reliefs of the Temple of Theseus ; every thing else, except some enriched

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

,{ In the angle 77, of the eastern pediment, were four horses’ heads ; but only two are readily distin-
u guished from below. M, Fauvel, who has ascended the ruin, observed arms rising from the sea at 7,
<e holding the bridal of the horses : something of this may be seen from below, if attentively examined.
“ The reclining figure is well preserved, except the legs, which have been broken. This pediment remains
(( neatly in the same manner to the present day, and it is surprising that Stuart has not given a drawing
“ °f ‘t to a large scale, especially as he has exhibited it on a very small one in his view of the back of the
“ Temple.

“ The figure lying down at N is exceedingly beautiful both in style and execution. The horse’s head at
“ O is in its original situation, though it has much the appearance of being put there accidentally. There
“ was another by the side of it, which has fallen down and been destroyed.”

Parts of this interesting sculpture are now in London : and I am enabled, by permission of Lord Elgin, to
add a few further observations.

The figure atG remains nearly as here drawn, except that the neck is cut close off.

A fragment of the figure C contains enough to exhibit the Egis, and a hole by which probably the head
of Medusa was affixed. The Egis, and the importance of the figure, point out this very clearly for Minerva,
who must be supposed to have descended from her car and advanced towards Jupiter. A fragment of the
shoulder and part of the back of Jupiter is preserved ; it exhibits veins, which therefore do not seem incom-
patible with divinity.

The first figure to the left of Jupiter appears to be Juno, the next Venus, as is sufficiently pointed out
by the Dolphin at her feet; the third is Latona, with her two Infants; the fourth Proserpine seated on the
knees of her mother Ceres; the sixth, seventh, and eighth, unknown.

There are fragments of what appear to be the three following figures. What I suppose to be Juno (the
first) has had a metal girdle; and I do not feel sure that it is of Pentelic marble. The second has a broad
girdle marked in the stone, and no part of the thigh is exposed ; but it is broken off scarcely below the
place marked in the drawing, as the junction of the garment. Of the third there is nothing remaining but
the lap, and what seems to be part of the leg of the child in her right arm.

Of the eastern pediment the arms mentioned by M. Fauvel as rising from the sea at 7, and the neck and
two of the horses’ heads, but much defaced, are in Lord Elgin’s Collection.

Next to this is the much admired figure of the Theseus, or of Hercules, supposed to be in a deified state,
because no veins are shewn.

The figures at K remain as in the drawings.

There is a figure in the attitude, and nearly in the condition, of that at L, with a wing on the left
shoulder.

The head and arms of the figure at M are lost, and the head and feet of the recumbent figure at N, other-
wise these figures remain nearly in the same state as when the drawing was made.

The horse’s head at O is amazingly fine, and full of spirit; the lower jaw has been broken: nothing
remains of the little wing or fin which is shewn behind it in the drawing; but that side of the horse’s neck is
fractured.

Mr. Stuart considered the east end of this Temple as the front; and he was led to this conclusion by
analogy, as the temples of the ancients usually faced the east. From the arrangement of the plan in this
particular building, as there is a room corresponding to the Opisthodomus, still partially in existence
towards the west end, and from the disposition of the sculpture. The publication of these drawings has
given rise to a notion that the western end was the true front of the Temple, because Pausanias says,
“ that the figures on the pediment relate to the birth of Minerva, those behind to the contest between
u Neptune and that Goddess.” Now the figures in the western pediment do not represent the birth
of Minerva, but they appear to represent her introduction to the Goddesses of Olympus, which may be
said to relate to her birth : but there is certainly nothing in it which can be imagined to indicate her
contest with Neptune. I think, however, the existing remains of the building are better evidence than the
very slight notice at present existing in Pausanias. It has been suggested that the building may have
been considered in two points of view, regarding the western end as the front, when the Temple, the
whole pile, is spoken of; the eastern as the front, when the cell, the place of worship, the seat of
the Deity, is the object of thought; or at least that Pausanias might speak of the west as the front, as it
was this part which offered itself to him from the Piraeus, on his advance to the city, and also on his entrance
into the Acropolis; and call the east the posticum, because from all these points it was hid from his view.

description of the plates.

PLATE VI, VII, VIII, IX.

Shew the Sculpture of the Pediments to a larger scale.

These are exact copies of the original drawings at Paris, made for the Marquis de Nointel in 16
stated in the preceding history.

PLATE X, XI, XII.

The Theseus or Hercules, the Jlisms or River God, and the Horse's Head.

The extraordinary beauty of these figures has been so generally admired, and is mentioned in such ig
terms of approbation in the Parliamentary Report, that it was thought necessary to have them enSrav“
purpose for this volume, which has been done with much care, in etching, from drawings, made from the
originals, by that able artist F. Li Chantrey, Esq., whose kindness and liberality are here mentioned with
grateful acknowledgments.

PLATE XIII. to XX.

Sculpture of the Frieze on the South Side.

Representing a procession of Horsemen, with Sacrifices and Oxen, as, is shewn united in Plate LXI.

PLATE XXI. to XXV.
Sculpture of the Frieze on the East Side.

Plate XXI. Here two Mystse are initiated ; and some Women, whom I take to he Sciaphorae, or umbiella-
bearers, appear to lead the procession. It may be remarked, that several female figures are represented on
this eastern frieze, and that none appear on any other part of this frieze.

Plate XXII. In this are represented Jupiter and the two Dioscuri; the other sitting Figure is perhaps
Theseus. Of the two erect Figures, one seems to be an Hierophant explaining some mysteries; and the
other a Mysta, to whom the mysteries are explained*.

Plate XXIII. Here the Priestess places a Basket on the head of a young Virginf, and puts a Torch
in her hand ; another young Female Figure has a Basket already placed on her head, and holds a Tablet in
her hand : there seems to be something carefully wrapt up in these baskets. The young Figures are the
two Arrephoras, or Canephoras, referred to in page 78, note (||), who, at the close of this festival, are dismissed
from the Acropolis, after having remained there a certain time to work on the Peplus. In this Plate are

* Meursius, in the last chapter of his Panathenain, produces the following quotation from Proclus, to shew, that some mysteries
were taught in this festival.

’H Se tSv TlavaBwalm (ioprS) louse &»Xuv tbv Into rS »5 xaQfixmrav iyragsav ii; tov xio-poo, xal tSv Aufagtm rhv iavy^yrnt t £v xoerfxtxSy IvavWew. QiXon-
&/** Kiti <f>iAo7roAEj(*oc SJe b fleof. Proclus, comm. I. in Timseo.

“ The feast of the Panathenaia seems to manifest that perfect order which extends from the (divine) mind, to the (material)
“ world; and likewise the unconfused distinction of the mundane contrarieties; for this Goddess is the Goddess of Wisdom as
“ well as of War.”

By this it appears to have been the opinion of Proclus, that some pious, though mysterious philosophic doctrines were then taught.
These figures, and those of the following Plate, confirm that opinion •. we there see, if I mistake not, the Hierophants explaining and
inculcating these doctrines to theMystaj, or persons to be initiated.

t napflevoi Suo th va3 Thf woXi aiot oIkSot a oroppaj, xahivt Se *A0i>W7of c-<pa; Kcnwptpouf. X. r, X. PaUSail. Attic. C. XXVli.

“ Two Virgins inhabit near the Temple of Minerva Polias; the Athenians call them Canephora (basket-bearers); they remain a
“ certain time with the Goddess ; and, when the Festival comes, at night, they are . employed in the following manner : they take on
“ their heads what the Priestess gives them to carry, neither the Priestess knowing what she gives, nor the Virgins what they receive.
“ There is an enclosure in the City, not far from the Temple of Venus in the Gardens, and in it a natural subterraneous cavern ; here
“ they descend, and having deposited the things they have brought, take up others, which are likewise covered up and concealed : froiq
“ this time they are dismissed, and two other Virgins are conducted to the Acropolis in their place.”

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

three divinities ; perhaps Vulcan and Juno sitting, and Iris standing by her. Vulcan, the limping God,
seems t{) be distinguished by having one shoe much higher than the other.

Plate XXIV. Represents a God and a Goddess, perhaps Neptune and Ceres, and two other Figures,
one of which is a Man, who appears to examine, with some attention, a piece of Cloth folded several times
double: the other is a young Girl, who assists in supporting it. May we not suppose this folded cloth to
represent the Peplus?

Plate XXV. Two young Maidens are here represented carrying Dishes, or Pateras ; also Hydriaphora,
or Women, carrying Pitchers of Water, and one assisting to support a Candelabrum.

PLATE XXVI. to XXXVII.

Sculpture on the Frieze on the North Side.

Here the Procession of Horsemen is preceded by Charioteers : in one is a Youth, whom I suppose a
Victor in the Chariot Race; a Man is about to crown him*. In Plate XXVI. are three Scaphephori, or
Men carrying Trays J : there is a great chasm between this and the Sacrificers and OxJ. On Plate XXXVII.
we see two Youths preparing to mount their Horses and follow the Procession ; others are just mounted, and
are beginning their march. More than sixty feet on each side have been occupied by the Horsemen who
attended on this Festival, amongst whom three varieties of.dress are particularly distinguishable; some are
clothed in a Chlamys and Tunic; some in a Tunic without a Chlamys; and others, excepting a little loose
drapery, are quite naked.

PLATE XXXVIII. to LI.

Shew a connected Series of the whole of the Sculpture at the West End , as shewn in the Section ,
Plate IV. These are all Casts in Plaister of Paris.

The composition and execution of this Frieze, which is entire, exhibits an abundant variety of most
elegant and interesting attitudes, combined with great judgment, and executed with equal skill.

METOPES.

PLATE LII. to LX.

Eighteen of the Metopes of the exterior Frieze of the Temple.

These are in very high relief, and some of very fine Sculpture. The following History may serve to
elucidate some of the subjects.

Pirithous, King of the Lapitliae, is said to have invited not only the Heroes of his age, but the Gods
themselves, and his neighbours the Centaurs, to celebrate his nuptials with Hippodamia. Mars was the only
one of the Gods who was not invited ; and to punish this neglect, the God of War was determined to raise a
quarrel among the guests, and to disturb the festivity of the entertainment. Eurythion, one of the Centaurs,

* tH» yap TIavaQmaim rZv /aiyaXon \mr<Ap[*ia. Xenophon in Symposio.

“ There is a horse-race on the greater Panathenaic festival.

Kal o vixbjv <ri<pav5rai eXala -btXe xtS. Suidas in VOCe ITavaflwai*.

“ And the Victor is crowned with a wreath of olive.

Athenaa quoque victores deli coronant. Plinius, lib. xv. c. 4.

f XX ITpixrMalEV o yipac f to~S ptETOi'xoi; Iv ra“s wopawaTj, nurd; p*£V ona$af <f>Epsi V ras »e SvyaVpat aula*, vtglia, xai rxiaiia. IlarpOC. in VOCe ZxafnQ&t.

“ The law has ordained, that in the processions the sojourners themselves should carry trays, and that their daughters should carry
lt pitchers of water and umbrellas.”

j ’Ey T#y{ navafinvaioij itaa-ai w<Xsi; ai am 'em A Qrvm awoixurflEiTai |33v Sutro^tvav titifatraf. Scholiastes in Nub. Aristoph;

“ In the Panathenaic festival, all the cities that were colonies from Athens sent an Ox to be sacrificed.”

I ri

description of the plates.

captivated with the beauty of Hippodamia, and intoxicated with wine, attempted to offer violence to the
bride, but he was prevented by Theseus, and immediately billed. This irritated the rest of the Centaurs,
the contest became general; but the valour of Theseus, Pirithous, Hercules, and the Lapithse, triumphed
over their enemies. Many of the Centaurs were slain, and the rest saved their lives by flight. This story
forms the subject of the Sculpture on the Metopes of the external Frieze of the Temple, two of which are
given in this Plate. The first of these is neither at Lord Elgin’s, nor is it shewn in Stuart’s Drawings of the
West front : the latter is in Lord Elgin’s Collection.

>! f

PLATE LXI.

Exhibits the remaining Pieces of the Frieze on a smaller Scale, brought together at one Tiew, with
the Chasm which the Progress of Time, or the Hand of Man , have caused in this truly
stupendous Work of Ancient Art .

A. The West Front. B. The North. C. The East: D. The South.

It is remarkable, that the harness of the horses in this Frieze was of metal: the holes by which it was
fixed to the marble are still distinctly visible. The Thunderbolt likewise in the hand of Jupiter, Plate XXII,
and the ornaments of several other Figures, have been covered with the same material.

The Frontispiece is taken from the celebrated Bust of that renowned Athenian worthy, Pericles, which
is in the Townley Collection of Marbles at the British Museum.

\* A Critical and Historical Account of these Sculptures has recently been Published in “ Two Memoirs
read to the Royal Institute of France, by Fisconti,” octavo; and further information respecting them
may be obtained from the “ Memorandum of Lord Elgin's Pursuits in Greece,” octavo.

THE END.

PRINTED BY J. MOYES,
Greville Street, Hatton Garden, London.

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